ETHIOPIA: 



HER GLOOM AND GLORY, 



AS ulusteated in the history of the 



SLAVE TRADE AND SLAVERY, 



RISE OF THE REPUBLIC OF LIBERIA, 



AND THE 



PROGRESS OF AFRICAN MISSIONS. 
By DAVID 'CHRISTY, 

AUTHOR OF "COTTON IS KINO," ETC., ETC. 




By W. p. STRICKLAND, D.D., 

AQENt OP THE Omo STATE COLONIZATION S0CIET7. "'^ 



CINCINNATI: ^y 

RICKEY, MALLORY & WEBB. 
1857. 






RECOMMENDATION. 



At a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Ohio State Colonization 
RociKTV, held June 29, 1855, it was, on motion of the Rev. Cliarles Elliott, 
T).D., unanimously 

•' RfgolveJ, That the Board approve of, and recommend the publication of 
Prof. CuKisTy'sLECTUEESO.v Colonization in book form, for general circulation." 
Attest: W. P. STRICKLAND, 

General Agent and Cor. Secretary, 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by 

RICKEY, MALLORY & WEBB, 

In the Clurk'a Office of the District Court of the Southern District of Ohio. 



CONTENTS. 



Introduction. 



PART FIRST. 

The Slave Trade — Emancipation of Slaves in the United States — Coloni- 
zation — Influence of Climate on Colored Men — Foreign Emigration — • 
Influence of Slavery, and Foreign Emigration — Free Colored Emigra- 
tion into Ohio — Necessity of Colonization — Practicability of — Influence 
of Colonization on the Native Africans — On the Missionary Enter- 
prize — Relations of England to Liberia 58 

PART SECOND. 

Social and Moral Condition of Africa — Human Sacrifices — Idolatry — 
Devil Worship — "Witchcraft — Polygamy — Slavery in Africa — Tyranny, 
Cruelties and Wars — Cannibalism-^The Slave Trade — Origin of — 
Slaves in a Barracoon — The Middle Passage — The Slaver Pons — Re- 
lations of American Slavery to African Colonization — Religious Views 
of the Pilgrims — Condition of Slaves in the United States — In Ja- 
maica — Cuba — Brazil — Mexico — Elements of Colonization — Letter from 
Governor Pinney 109 

PART THIRD. 

Free Labor in Tropical and Semi-Tropical Countries — Consumption of 
Slave Labor Products by England, France and the United States — 
Causes operating to perpetuate Slavery — The Competition of Free with 
Slave Labor — Africa the Field of such Competition — African Civiliza- 
tion — Colonization in Liberia — Hope for Africa and the African Race . 179 

PART FOURTH. 

Importance of Reviewing the Past — False "Views of Abolitionists — The 
Anti-Slavery Policy has retarded the Progress of Emancipation — The 
Indebtedness of the Christian World to Slave Labor — The Consump- 
tion of Slave Labor Products — Their Influence upon the Commerce of 
the World — Increased Exportation of Slaves from Africa — West India 
Free Labor — Suppression of Slave Trade in Brazil — Abolition of the 
Slave Trade on the Western Coast of Africa — Employments of Libe- 
rian Citizens — Free Colored Population in the United States — How 
they supported Slavery— What shall be done— Practical Tendency of 
Colonization- Horrors of the Slave Trade— The Destiny of Africa in 
the Hands of the African Race — Note 195 

3 



iv CONTENTS. 

PART FIFTH. 

Missions in Africa — Rev. Samuel J. Mills — First Emigration to Africa — 
Rates of Increase in Emigration — Missions of the Methodist E. Church 
in Liheria — Apjiropriatioiis — Progress of — Oflicial Visit of Bishop 
Scott — Ajnerican Baptist Missionary Union — Rev. Lot Carey and Collin 
'J'»-ago, (colored men) — Labors of tne Mission — Mr. Carey elected Vice 
Agent of the Colony — His Death — Reinforcement of the Mission — Pro- 
gress of — Tlie Foreign Missionary Board of the Southern Baptist 
Convention — Its Operations — Number of Stations, Missionaries — 
School.-" — Communicants — Central Africa — The Presbyterian Board of 
Missions — Rev. J. B. Pinney — Encouraging Prospects — Alexander 
High School — The Mission of the American Protestant Episcopal 
Church — Bishop Payne — Missionaries — Schools — The Gospel preached 
t'> the wluile Guebo Tribe, numbering 25,000 — Maryland in Liberia — 
'J"hc American Cliristian Missionary Society — The Missionary a Col- 
f>rcd Man — Progres.s — Tlie Associate Reformed Synod of the South — 
Preparations for Establisliing a Mission — Progress — Influence of Mis- 
sions on Native Tribes — Missions in the English Colonies of Recap- 
tured Africans — Missions among the Native Tribes beyond the Influ- 
ence and Protection of the Colonics — Colonies of While Men in South 
Africa — Conclusion — Appendix — Opposition to Colonization 249 



INTRODUCTION. 



That slavery has existed in all ages since the flood, is an unquestioned 
fact. That it has formed a part of the civil as well as ecclesiastical polity 
of the most powerful and influential empires of the world, Assyrian, 
Egyptian, Grecian, Roman, and European, is equally an established fact. 
And while it has existed in all ages, and among all nations, it has also 
been associated with all religions, and been the subject of legislative 
enactments in all countries. We find slavery intimately interwoven with 
the rites and ceremonies of Paganism, Judaism, and Christianity ; and 
whatever its origin, whether divine, human, or demonic, this dark feature 
in the constitution of nations, governments, and churches, has always 
existed, while every effort to erase it has only deepened the line of its 
deformity. 

It has been a subject of greater elaboration and controversy than any 
other which has agitated the public mind. It has been the theme of the 
pen, the press, the pulpit, the platform, the ecclesiastical convention, the 
halls of legislation, the cabinets of kings, emperors, and autocrats. The 
scholar, the divine, the jurist, the politician, and statesman, have alike 
been employed in laboring to solve this problem of evil ; and so difficult 
has been its solution, that after the lapse of centuries, it remains as dark 
and enigmatical as ever. 

Africa, more than any other country in the world, has been the great 
mother who has furnished more of her hapless sons for the chains and 
degradation of slavery, than any other country on the globe ; and the 
slavery which has existed there, from time almost immemorial, exists in 
all its odious features to the present day. It may be asked, how shall 
this dark continent be approached, and what policy shall the friends of 
humanity adopt to elevate and save its down-trodden millions ? Will the 
Mahommedanism of the North, which is winning its way southward, and 
infusing itself among the masses of Central Africa, so as in some degree 
to modify their bar1)arism, prepare the primitive tribes for the reception 
of a civilization and faith which are as true as they are divine? Will the 
Republic of Liberia, extending along the western coast, as a fringe, 
spread its fibers into the interior, and, like veins of life-giving blood, pour 
new currents into the heart of the great mummy ? Is there hope for a 
nation which, in the lapse of three thousand years, has scarcely moved its 
hand or turned in its sleep ? Will Ethiopia ever awake and stretch out 
her hands to God ? Can it be that the identical types of race, servitude, 
occupation, and character, that now exist in Africa, may be found 
engraven on the monuments of Babylon and Thebes four thousand years 
ago, and yet that we may look for the redemption of such a people ? 

The present work of Prof. Christv is designed to throw light on these 
difficult and mysterious subjects, so far, at least, as they stand connected 
with the perpetuation of the evils of African slavery, and presents, in our 
opinion, the only plan suggested by Providence, as indicated in the signs 
of the times, for the suppression and final extirpation of this great evil. 
The candid reader will find, in these pages, such reliable information aa 

(5) 



6 INTRODUCTION. 

•will guide him in his researches into the condition and prospects of the 
enslaved of Africa, as exhibited in this country particuhirly ; -while the 
statesman, politician, moralist, and Christian, will see the importance of 
adopting:; a different line of policy from that species of moral and legal 
suasion which lias hitherto characterized the movements of those ■vvho 
liave professed to be the only friends of the slave. 

AVe believe it is now conceded by all sober and intelligent minds, that 
if ever Africa is redeemed and her ent)rmous system of slaver}', embracing 
nine-tenths of her entire population, is broken up, it must be by the co- 
oi>eration of agencies now so ausj>iciously begun — through means of 
Colonization upon her own soil. The abolition of the African slave 
trade, and the destruction of the factories engaged in that traffic, along 
the line of coast embraced in the Republic of Liberia, has established the 
fact, that just so far as that Republic shall be able to extend its bounda- 
ries, by the annexation of territory, so will the infernal system be crip- 
pled, and eventually destroyed. 

Seven years ago. Prof. Christv, with a view of forming an additional 
State, to be connected with the Republic of Liberia, for the purpose of 
furnishing a home for the colored people of Ohio, proposed the subject to 
some friends of Colonization in the State, and Mr. Charles McMicken, 
of Cincinnati, Ohio, with a generosity worthy of so high and benevolent 
an object, gave 85,000 00. Mr. Soi.omox Sturges, of Putnam, Ohio, also 
pave $1,000 00. To these sums was added a generous donation of 
$o,U00 00, from Mr. Gurnev, of London; and the territory northwest of 
Liberia, including the Gallinas, known to be the most active seat of the 
traffic in slaves, was purchased and forever consecrated to freedom, while 
tiic chains were stricken from more than "0,000 slaves. Such was the 
state of the slave trade, and the wars grownig out of it, in this section of 
country, that the missions established there could not prosper, and all 
hope was about to be cast off in regard to their success ; but now, that 
the government of Liberia has been extended over the whole territory, 
as far as the line of Sierra Leone, the missions are protected and prosper. 
Thus we have an Ohio in Africa, in a healthy and fertile regicm, where 
we hope many of our colored friends will find a home in the enjoj'ment 
(jf all the rights, privileges and benefits of manhood. 

As the author wrote the first part of this work in 1849, the numbers 
and position of the free colored people arc presented as in the census of 
IS-KJ. No material change in the tendencies of the state of tilings 
dcscribf'd has occurred since, ex<'opt tliat the census of iSoO shows the 
ratio of their increase to be nnudi lower than that upon which the esti- 
mates are based, and more unfavorable to that class of our population. 
Another variation in the results is found in the fact, that Indiana, as a 
consci|uence of her rerent laws in regard to the colored people, had 
diminiblK'd her free colored population, in ISoO, over two thousand, in- 
stead of having the number increa.sed twofold, as had occurred in every 
rrccftling decade. The same result has followed the legislation of 
Uinois, while in all the other States, there has been but little change. 
Tiio numlicr lussigned to Louisiana, in ISIO, was too great, as appears 
from the census of' l^!50. 

'I'lu'sn explanatory remarks become necessary in an introduction to the 
following work, as the fa<'ts were communicated ])y the author to the 
Legislature of Ohio, at two several s(>ssions, with a view to oljtain that 
axHistiiiice which had been granted by other States to further the olijects 
of Coloiii/.jition, and they were also communicated to the Constitutional 
Coiiv.M.tion of this Slate. W. P. STRICKLAND. 

Cincinnati, O., July, 1S35. 



PA E T F IE S T. 



Ever since the fall of man, and his expulsion from that Edon of 
bliss, assigned him in his state of innocence, a warfare has been 
waged between good and evil. The conflict has been varied in its 
results, sometimes good and at others evil having the ascendency. 
But why is it that an all-wise, all-powerful, omniscient and infinitely 
benevolent Being should have permitted the introduction of moral 
evil into the world, and in his providence allow its continuance, we 
cannot determine, nor shall we wait to inquire. 

We believe that errors of judgment and opinion, and all evil 
actions, and every form of wickedness and injustice in the world, 
have their origin in the moral depravation of man's nature, and thit 
the contest between good and evil will necessarily continue until 
there shall be a moral renovation of his heart. This moral deprav- 
ation of man's nature being general, ils effects are universal, and the 
whole world has been but a tlieater upon which continued develop- 
ments of its workings have been exhibited. 

We believe that God has made provision for man's moral redemp- 
tion, — for creating in him a new heart and renewing a right spirit 
within him — and tliat the Gospel is the ordinary medium through 
which this blessing flows to mankind. And believing this, \ve have 
full confldence in the success of all enterprises for the amelioration 
of the condition of mankind, which embrace the Christian religion 
as the basis of their operations. 

The history of African slavery forms one of the darkest pages in 
the catalogue of woes introduced into the world by human depravity. 
It originated in the islands connected with this continent, in an error 
(if judgment, but, strange to say, from motives of benevolence, andhas 
been productive of an accumulation of human suff"ering which aflbrds 
a most painful illustration of the want of foresight in man, and the 
immensity of the evils which misguided philanthropy may inflict 
upon our race. 

In attempting to bring up in review this enormous evil in its origin 
and various aspects, as connected with colonization, the subject 
naturally divides itself into the following heads : 

(7) 



8 The Since Truik. 

I. Tlie oriijiii of the !>lave trade, with the eflbrts made for its 

suppression. 

II. The nicasiires adopted at an early day for tlie emancipation of 

the sLives introduced into the United States, with the results. 

III. 'J'iie provision to he made for tlic people of color when liher- 
ated. 

IV. The practicability of colonizing the free colored people of the 
United States. 

V. The efiects of colonization on the native Africans, and upon 

the missionary eflbrts in Africa. 

VI. The certainty of success of the colonization scheme, and of 
the perpetuity of the Republic of Liberia, 

I. A Portuguese exploring expedition was in progress, in 1434, 
along the west coast of Africa, having in view the double object of 
conquering the Infidels and finding a passage by sea to India. Under 
the sanction of a bull of Pope ^lartin V., they had granted to thein 
the riglit to all the territories they might discover, and a plenary 
indulgence to the souls of all wlio miglit perish in the enterprise, and 
in recovering those regions to Ciirist and his church. Anthony 
(ionzales, an officer of this expedition, received at Rio del Oro, on 
the coast of Africa, in 1442, ten neirro slaves and some gold dust in 
exchange for several Moorish captives, which he hehl in custody. 
On his return to Lisbon, the avarice of his countrymen was awakened 
by his success, and in a few years thirty ships were fitted out in 
pursuit of this gainful traffic. These incipient steps in the slave 
trade having been taken, it was continued by private adventurers until 
1481, when the King of Portugal took the tide of Lord of Guinea, 
and erected many forts on the African coast to protect himself in this 
iniquitous war upon human rights. 

Soon after tlie settlement of the first colony in St. Domingo, in 
1493, the licentiousness, rapacity and insolence of the Spaniards 
exasperated the native Indians, and a war breaking^ut between them, 
the latter were subdued and reduced to slavery. But as the avarice 
of the Spaniards was too rapacious and impatient to try any mediod 
of acquiring wcalih but that of searching for gold, this servitude soon 
became as grievous as it was unjust. The Indians were driven in 
crowds to the mountains, and compelled to work in the mines by 
masters who imposed their tasks without mercy or discretion. Labor 
60 disproporlioncd to their strength and former hal)its of life wasted 
that feeble race so rapidly, that in fifieen years their numbers were 
reduced, by the original war and sultsetpient slavery, from a million 
to sixty thousand. 

This ciKirmous injustice awakened tlie sympathies of benevolent 
hearl-s, and great eflbrts were made by the Dominican missionaries to 
rescue tlie Indi-iiis from such cruel oj)pression. At length Las Casas 
espoused their cause; i)ut his eloquence and all his eflbrts, both in the 
Island anil in Spain, were unavailing. The impossibility, as it was 
»up|)os<il, <<f (MIT) iML"- iin any iniprovemcnts iu America, and securing 



The Slave Trade. 9 

to llie crowii of Spain the expected annual revenue of gold, unless 
the Spaniards could command the labor of the natives, was an in- 
superable objection to his plan of treatinir them as free subjects. 

To remove this obstacle, without which it was in vain to mention 
his scheme, Las Casas proposed to purchase a sufficient number of 
Negroes, from the Portuguese setdements on the coast of Africa, to 
be employed as substitutes for the Indians. Unfortunately for the 
children of Africa, this plan of Las Casas was adopted. As early as 
1503, a iew Negro slaves had been sent into St, Domingo, and in 
1511, Ferdinand had permitted them to be imported in great numbers. 
The labor of one African was found to be equal to that of four 
Lidians. But Cardinal Ximenes, acting as Regent from the death of 
Ferdinand to the accession of Charles, peremptorily refused to allow 
of their lurther introduction, Charles, however, on arriving in Spain, 
granted the praver of Las Casas, and bestowed upon one of his 
Flemish friends the monopoly of supplying the colonies with slaves. 
Tills favorite sold his right to some Genoese merchants, 1518, and 
they brought the traffic in slaves, between Africa and America, into 
that regular form which has been continued to the present time. 

Thus, through motives of benevolence toward the poor oppressed 
native Lidians of St. Domingo, did the mistaken philanthropy of a 
good man, co-operating with the avarice of the Christian world, entad 
perpetual chains and inflict unutterable woes upon the sons of Africa. 

This new market for slaves having been thus created, the nations 
of Europe were soon found treating with each other for die extension 
of the slave trade. 'The Genoese,' as already stated, 'had, at first, 
the monopoly of this new branch of commerce. The French next 
obtained it, and kept it until it yielded them, according to Spanish 
official accounts, the sum of $204,000,000. In 1713 the English 
secured it for thirty years.' But Spain, in 1739, purchased the 
British right for the remaining four years, by the payment of $500,000. 
The Dutch also participated to some extent in the traffic. 

The North American Colonies did not long escape the introduction 
of this curse. As early as 1620, slaves were introduced by a Dutch 
vessel, which sailed up the James river, and sold her cargo. From 
that period a few slaves were introduced into North America from 
year to year, until the beginning of the 18th century, when Great 
Britain, having secured the monopoly of the slave trade, as before 
mentioned, prosecuted it with great activity, and made her own 
Colonies the principal mart for the victims of her avarice. But her 
North American Colonies made a vigorous opposition to their intro- 
duction. The mother country, however, finding her commercial 
interests greatly advanced by this traffic, refused to listen to their 
remonstrances, or to sancUon their legislative prohibitions. 

But in addition to the commercial motive which controlled the 
actions of England, another, still more potent, was disclosed in the 
declaration of the Earl of Dartmouth, in 1777, when he declared, as 
a reason lor forcing the Africans upon the Colonies, that "Negroes 
cannot become Republicans : — they will be a powder in our hands to 



10 The Slave Trade. 

restrain the unruly Colonists." The success wliicli :i kind provi- 
dence granted to the arms of the Colonists, in their strugi^le lor 
independence, however, soon enabled them to control this evil, and 
ultimately to expel it from our coasts. 

In consequence ol" citizens of the Colonies being involved in the 
trafiic, in the adoption of the Constitution the period lor the termina- 
tion of tiie slave trade was prolonged until January, 1808. But 
Congress, in anticipation, passed a law, on March 3d, 1807, prohibit- 
ing the fitting out of any vessels for the slave trade after tliat date, 
and forbidding the importation of any slaves after January, 18U8, 
under the penally of imprisonment from five to ten years, a fine of 
S20,000, and the forfeiture of the vessels employed therein. This 
act also authorized the President of the United States to employ 
armed vessels to cruise on the coasts of Africa and the United States 
to prevent infractions of the law. 

On the 3d of jNIarch, 1819, another act \vas passed, re-affirming 
the former act, and authorizing the President to make provision for 
the safe-keeping and support of all recaptured Africans, and for their 
return to Africa. This movement was prompted by the exertions of 
the American Colonization Society, which had been organized on 
the first of January, 1817, and embraced among its members many 
of tlie most inlluential men in the nation. 

On the first of March, preceding the passage of this act, a 
gentleman from Virginia oil'ered a resolution in the House of Kcpre- 
sentatives, wiiicli was passed without a division, declaring that every 
person who should import any slave, or purchase one so imported, 
should be punished with death. The incident reveals to us, in a 
very unequivocal manner, the state of public sentiment at that time. 

In tiie following year, 1820, Congress gave the crowning act to her 
legislation upon this subject, by the passage of the law declaring the 
slave trade piracy. This decisive measure, the first of the kind 
among nations, and which stamped the slave trade with deserved 
infamy, it should be remembered, was recommended by a commitlce 
of the House in a Rf^porl founded on a memorial of the Colonization 
Society. Thus terminated the liirislative inca.surcs adopted by our 
Covcrnment for the suppression of the slave trade. 

We shall now turn tn (ireat IJritain, the most extensive participator 
in this iniquitous traffic, and ascertain the success of the measures 
adopU'il fiir its suppression in that direction. 

'I'lircniiili the efibrts of Willx-rforce and his co-adjutors, the IJriiish 
l'aili:inu'nt ij.u^scd an act in 1800, which was t(t take efiecl in 1808, 
by which the slave trade was forever prohibited to her West India 
Colonies. But the want of wisdom and foresight involved in the 
measures adopted to accomplish this great wiirk, soon became mani- 
fubl. Had (ireat Britain jirevailed upon or compelled Portugal and 
Spain to unite with her, the annihilation of the slave trade might 
have been ellcctcd. The trafiic being abandoned by England, and 
left free to all others, was continued under the fiags of Portugal and 
Spain, and their tropical colonies soon received such large accessions 



The Slave Trade. 11 

of slaves, as lo enable them to bc^in to rival Great Britain in the 
supply oi tropical products to the markets of the world. 

But the pliilantin'opic Wilberforce persevered in his efforts, and, 
after a struirirle of thirty years, succeeded in procuring the passajre of 
the Act of ' Parliament, in 1824, declaring the slave trade piracy. 
'I'his was four years after the passage of the Act of onr Congre.ss 
which declared it piracy, and subjected those engaged therein to the 
penalty of death. 

'I'his decisive action of the two Governments was hailed with joy 
by tiie pliilanthropisls of the world, and their efforts were now put 
forth to inlluence all the other Christian powers to unite in the sup- 
pression of this horrible traffic. Their exertions were ultimately 
crowned with success, and their joy was unbounded. England, 
France, the United States, and the other Christian powers, not only 
declared it piracy, but agreed to employ an armed force for its sup- 
prei^sion. Tliis engagement, however, was not carried out by all of 
the Governments who had assented to the proposition; yet, still, the 
hope was coniidently entertained that the day for the destruction of 
the slave trade had come, and that this reproach of Christian nations 
would be blotted out for ever. 

But, alas, how short-sighted is man, and how futile, often, his 
greatest eflbrts to do good. The vanity of human wisdom and the 
utter imbecility of human legislation, in the removal of moral evil, 
was never more signally shown than in this grand struggle for the 
suppression of the slave trade. Instead of having been checked and 
suppressed, and the demons in human form who carried it on having 
been deterred from continuing the traffic by the dread penalty of death, 
as was confidently anticipatetl, it has gone on increasing in extent and 
with an accumulation of horrors that surpass belief. A glance at its 
history proves this but too fully, and shows that the warfai'e between 
good and evil is one of no ordinary magnitude. 

Edwards, the historian of the West Indies, states, that the import- 
ation of slaves from Africa, in British vessels, from 1680 to 1786, 
averaged 20,000 annually. In 1792, Mr. Fox and Mr. Pitt both 
agreed in estimating the numbers torn from Africa at 80,000 per 
annum. From 1798 to 1810, recent English Parliamentary docu- 
ments show the numbers exported from Africa to have averaged 85, 
000 per annum, and the mortality during the voyage to have been 
14 per cent. From 1810 lo 1815 the same documents present an 
average of 93,000 per annum, and the loss durinir the middle passage 
to have equalled that of the preceding period. From 1815 to 1819 
the export of slaves had increased to 106,000 annually, and the 
mortality during the voyage to 25 per cent. 

Here, then, is brought to view the extent of the evil which called 
for such energetic action, and which, it was hoped, could be easily 
crushed by legislation. Let us now look forward to the results. 

While the slave trade was sanctioned by law, its extent cotdd be as 
easily ascertained as that of any other branch of commerce; but after 
that period, the estimates of its extent are only approximations. 



12 The Slave Trade 

Tlie late Sir Thomas Fowell Bcxton devoted himself ^vilh \\n 
wearied iiuluslry to the investiiration of the extent and enormities of tlie 
foreiirn slave trade. His labors extended throiifrh many years, and 
the results, as published in 1840, sent a thrill of horror throuehoul 
the Christian world, lie proved, conclusively, that the victims to 
tlie slave trade, in .^y'rica, amounted annually to 500,000. This 
included the numbers who perish in the seizure of the victims, in the 
wars of the natives upon each other, and the deaths during their 
march to the coast and the detention there before embarkation, 'i'his 
loss he estimates at one half, or 500 out of every 1000. The destruc- 
tion of life during the middle passage he estimates at 25 percent., or 
125 out of the remaining 500 of the original thousand. 'I'lie moital- 
ily after landing and in seasoning he shows is 20 per cent, or one-iifih 
of the 375 survivors. Thus he proves that the number of lives 
sacrificed by the system, hears to the number of slaves available to 
the planter, the proportion of 6'ei'en \.o three — that is to 533% for every 
300 slaves landed and sold in the market, 700 have fallen victims to 
the deprivations and cruelties connected with the traflic. 

The p:irliamentary documents above referred to vary but little from 
the estimates of Mr. Buxton, excepting that they- do not compute the 
number of victims destroyed in Africa in their seizure and transporta- 
tion to the coast. The following table, extracted from these docu- 
ments, presents the averaire number of slaves exported from Africa to 
America, and sold chielly in Brazil and Cuba, with the per cent 
amount of loss in the periods designated. 

T).j^.,, Annual Sveraije Av'pe casualties of voyage. 

iiumi>i'r rxporled. Per Ct. Amount. 

1798 to 1805 85,000 14 12,000 

1805 to 1810 85,000 14 12,000 

1810 to 1815 93,0t)0 14 13,000 

1815 to 1817 100,000 25 26,000 

1817 to 181!) 100,000 25 2(5,600 

1819 to 1825 103,000 25 25,800 

1825 to 1830 125,000 25 31,000 

1830 to 1835 78,500 25 19,600 

1835 to 1840 135,800 25 33,900 

This enormous increase of the slave trade, it must he remembered, 
had taken place during the period of vigorous efforts for its suppres- 
Hion. I'h)ulan(l, alone, accorchui: to McQueen, had expended for this 
(thject, up to 1812, in the ( niployuient of a naval force on ihe coast of 
Africa, tlio sum of !?!8H,hhh,hK8. and he estimated the annual expen- 
diture at that time at $2,500,000. But it has been increased since 
thai period to !?.3, 000,000 a year, making the total expenditure of 
(Jr(;al Britain, for the suppre.'ision of the slave trade, at the close of 
1818, more than one hundred viillions of dollars! France and the 
Uiiiii'd Staierf"havc also expended a larjre amount for this object. 

Till" di.schisurc8 of .Mr. Buxton produced a juofound sensation 
throughout England. :ind the conviction was forced upon the public, 
miiid, and " tij)on Hit INIajesty'H ronlidenlinl advisers," ihat Ihe 



Tht Slave Trade. 13 

slave trade could not he suppressed by physical force, and that it 
\v:is " indispensable to enter upon some new preventive system 
calculated to arrest the foreign slave trade." 

The remedy proposed and attempted to be carried out, was "/Ac 
deliverance of Africa by adlins; forth her own resources.'''' 

To accomplish this great work, the capitalists of England were to 
set on fool agricultural companies, who, under the protection of the 
CJovernment, should obtain lands by treaty with the natives, and) 
employ them in its tillage, — to send out trading ships and open 
factories at the most commanding positions, — to increase and con- 
centrate the English naval force on the coast, and to make treaties 
with the chiefs of the coast, the rivers and the interior. These 
measures adopted, the companies formed were to call to their aid 
a race of teachers of Afiiean blood, from Sierra Leone and the West 
Indies, wlio should labor with the whites in diffusing ioielligence, in 
iiiipaiting religious instruction, in teaching agriculture, in establishing 
and encouraging legitimate commerce, and in impeding and suppress- 
ing the slave trade. In conformity witii these views and aims, the 
African Civilization Society was formed, and the Government fitted 
out three large iron steamers, at an expense of $300,000, for the use 
of the company. 

Mr. McQueen, who had for more than twenty years devoted him- 
self to the consideration of Africa's redemption and Britain's glory, 
and who had become the most perfect master of African geography 
and African resources, also appealed to the Government, and urged 
the adoption of measures for making all Africa a dependency of 
the British Empire. Speaking of what England had already accom- 
plished, and of what she could yet achieve, he exclaims : 

"Unfold the map of the world: We command the Ganges. 
Fortified at Bombay, the Indus is our own. Possessed of the islands 
in die mouth of the Persian Gulf, we command the ouUets of Persia 
and the mouths of the Euphrates, and consequendy of countries the 
cradle of the human race. We command at the Cape of Good 
Hope. Gibraltar and Malta belonging to us, we control the Mediter- 
ranean. Let us plant the British standard on the island of Socatora 
— upon the island of Fernando Po, and inland upon the banks of the 
Niger ; and then we may say Asia and Africa, for all their productions 
and all their wants, are under our control. It is in our power. 
Nothing can prevent us." 

But Providence rebuked this proud boast. The African Civdization 
Society commenced its labors under circumstances the most favorable 
for success. Its list of members embraced many of the noblest 
names of the kingdom. Men of science and intelligence embarked 
in it, and, when the expedition set sad, a shout of joy arose and a 
prayer for success ascended from ten thousand philanthropic English 
voices. 

But this magnificent scheme, fraught with untold blessings to Africa, 
and destined, it was believed, not only to regenerate her speedily, 
but to produce a revenue of unnumbered millions of dollars to the 



14 The Slave Trade. 

stockholders, proved an utter failure. The Afr can climate, that 
deadly foe to the white man, blighted tlie enterprise. In a few 
montiis, disease and death had so far reduced the numbers of the 
men connected with the expedition, that the enterprise was abandon- 
ed, and the only evidence of its ever having ascended the Niger 
exists in its model farm left in the care of a Liberian. 

'I'liis result, however, had been anticipated by many of the judicious 
Englishmen who had not suHored their enthusiasm to overcome their 
judiimenls, but who had opposed it as wild and visionary in the 
extreme, on account of the known fatality of the climate lo white 
men. 

'i'hus did the last direct effort of England fur the redemption of 
Africa prove abortive. The slave trade has still been piosecuted 
with little al)atemeiit, and for the last few years with an alarming 
increase. The statistics in the parliamentary report, before quoted, 
and frcun which we have extracted tlie table exhibiting tlic extent of 
the slave trade between Alrica and America, down to 18;<9, also 
present the following table, including tlie numbers exported from 
Africa to America, from 1840 to 1847 inclusive, with the per cent, of 
loss in the middle passage and the amount.'^ It is as follows : 



Years. 


Numbers. 


Loss. 








Per Cl. 


Amount. 


1840 


01,114 


25 


10,008 


1841 


4.'j,097 


25 


11,274 


1842 


28,100 


25 


7,100 


1843 


5.^,062 


25 


13.705 


1844 


54,102 


25 


13,525 


1845 


30,758 


25 


9,189 


184G 


70,117 


25 


19,029 


1847 


84,350 


25 


21,0b9 



Here, then, we have the melancholy truth forced upon us, that the 
slave trade was carried on as actively in 1817 as Irom 1798 to 1810; 
while the destruction of life during the middle passage has been 
increased from 14 percent, to 25; and that while the vigorous means 
used to suppress the traflic, during these fifiy vears, have failed of 
this end, they have greatly aijgravated its horrors. 

And such was the conviction ol' the total inadequacy of liie means 
which had been em[)ioyed by the British (iovcrnment to check or 
sup])ress the evil, that tlu^ Hriiish and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society 
at the dose of the year 1847, after declaring that the slave trade was 
then more actively and systematically j)rosecuted than for manv 
years, and that its horrors had been greatly increaseil, urged upon the 
CJovernmenl, from motives of humanity, the suspension of all 
physical force, and the repeal of all laws indicting pcnaliii s ii|)on 

• TlicrR JH dome diKcri-paricv in tlu- niitiiorilios from wiiidi wc quote tlir figures. 
Wc hiivc not lind ncri-BH u> the oritjiiiiil ducuiiicnt. One of our iiuthoiilie.s gives 
the whole iukiiImt of lliese e\]>(>rls from .Xfriea to Urazit, luid a iiroportionii! nunilier 
to ('ul>:i. Thi* would greully iiicreuho all our cbtimates liastd ujiom llie figures 
vi tliix t.ili|e. 



The Slave Trade. 15 

those engaged in the traffic. It was proved tliat the slave traders, 
when closely pursued by vessels of war, often hide the evidences of 
their guilt, when favored by tlie darkness of the night, by burying the 
slaves with which they were freighted in the depths of the ocean; or 
by persevering in refusing to surrender, force the pursuing vessels 
to continue firing into them, and thus endanger and destroy the inno- 
cent victims crowded between the decks of their vessels. It was also 
urged that the African Civilization Society be revived, but that, instead 
of tvhite men, the emigrants be taken from the better educated and 
more enliglitened of the West India coloi-ed population. By the 
adoption of this course, and the civilization of the Africans along the 
coast, they hope to seal the fountain whence the evil flows. 

This brief oudine of tlie slave trade, and of the efiorts made by 
Great Britain for its suppression, and the utter failure of the measures 
which she had adopted to accomplish that object, prove, conclusively, 
two points which American philanthropists had lor years urged as 
settled truths, viz : 

1. That the planting and building vp of Christian Colonies on 
the coast of Africans the only pracrical remedy for the slave trade. 

2. That colored men only, can ivith safety, settle upon the 
dfrican Coast. 

And so fully has the British Government now become convinced 
t f the truth of these propositions, that Lord Palmerston has not only 
placed a naval force at the disposal of the President of Liberia for 
the suppression of the slave trade on territory recently purchased, 
where the slave traders refused to leave, but has, in connection with 
others, oflered ample pecuniary means to purchase the whole territory 
between Sierra Leone and Liberia, now infested by those traffickers 
in human flesh, with the view of annexing it to the little Republic, 
and thus rescuing it from their hands. 

By this act, Englishmen have acknowledged the superiority of our 
scheme of African redemption over that of the philanthropists of 
Britain, and have thus given assurances to the world that their plan 
of making Africa a dependency of the British Crown has been 
abandoned, and that a change of policy toward our colony has been 
adopted. All their own schemes in relation to Africa having failed, 
they are constrained to acknowledge the wisdom and success of ours, 
and are the first to avail themselves of the commercial advantages 
aflbrded to the world by the creation of the Republic of Liberia. 

But we shall, under another head, revert again to this subject, and 
present some facts which may serve to explain the course of England 
in her sudden expression of friendship and sympathy for our Colony. 

II. The elTorts made, at an early day, for the emancipation of the 
slaves in the United States, with the results. 

On this important question there was not the same unanimity of 
sentiment which had prevailed upon that of the slave trade. The 
love of ease, the prospect of gain, the fear that so large a body of 
ignorant men would be dangerous to the public peace, and many 



IG 



Emmicipulion of Slaves in the United Slates. 



oilier coiisitleratioMS, iiinuenccil the minds of a large number to 
oppose the hl)eralion ol" llie slaves. But, notwithstanding lliis oppo- 
sition, tlie work progressed, until Acts ol" Emancipation were carried 
tiirough tlie Legislatures of all the States north of Delaware, Mary- 
land and Virginia. Nor was this good woik confined to the States 
vhich were engaged in legislative enactments for emancipation. The 
ielings of humanity wliich dictated the liberation of the slave in the 
onhern States, pervaded the minds of good men in the southern 
jtates also. 

Tlie full extent of the emancipations in tlie slave States cannot be 
accurately ascertained. The census tables, liowever, supply sullicient 
testimony on this point to enable us to reach a close approximation 
to the true number wliich have been liberated since 1790, when the 
first census of the United Stales was taken. 

The following table gives the number of free colored people iu 
1790, with the number in all the subsequent periods up to 1840, and 
the increase in each ten years, togctlier with the increase per 
cent, per annum. 

I. 

7 able nhowing the number of the Free colored population of the 

United States. 



YEARS. 


1790 


1800 IHlO 


1820 

238,197 
51,751 

2.77+ 


1830 

319,599 

81,402 

3.41 + 


1840 


Total number 
Actual increase 
Increase per cent. 
per annum 


59,466 


108,398 186,446 
48,932 78,048 

8.22+ 7.20+ 


380,235 
66,636 

2.08+ 



In 1790 the feeling in favor of einancipnlion, it will be seen, had 
given us a free colored population of nearly 00,000 persons. WJiat 
jirnportion of these were free-born cvumoi be determined, but it would 
probably not exceed one-half. 

Tlie numlier of slaves in the free States, in 1790, and the decrease 
in each period, up to 1840, with the annual decrease j)er cent, was 
as I'ullows : 

II. 

Table exhibilin'j; the number of Slaves in the Free Stales from 

1790 '/o 1840. 



YEARS. 



'i'otid number 
Actual decrease 
Decrease jier cent. 
per anniini 



1790 



40,212 



1800 

35,803 
4,400 

1.23 + 



1810 

'27n"8T 
8,022 

3.17 + 



1820" 



18,001 
9,180 

5.04 + 



1830 1840 

2,774 ^7'64 

* 15,227 2,010 

18.88+126.30+ 



The decrease of the slaves in tlie free States, after 1790, is not 
greater than ihc deaths in a population of such a class of persons. 

• Hy u Inw of Nrw York 10,000 hIuvch were otiKincipiitPiI in one day in 1S27, Ihim 
(Icrrcuhiiig Ihe nuinl)cr <»f sliivos, uiiJ increasing liie tree colored, as elated in tliis 
table 



Emancipation of Slaves in the United Stales. 



17 



Pennsylvania passed lier emancipation act in 1780, and the otlicr 
states soon afterward followed her example, but at what periods wo 
are not at present informed.* It is probable that the free colored 
population was not increased by emancipations of the slaves remain- 
ing in the free states after 1790, because, as before stated, the decrease 
of these slaves did not exceed the mortality, excepting in 1827, when 
New York liberated all hers then remaining in bondage. Any in- 
crease of the free colored population, therefore, over their natural 
increase will have been produced by emancipations in the slave 
stairs. 

The following table, taken in connection with table I, shows, that 
from 1830 to 1840 the increase of the free colored population was 
reduced to but a very small fraction over two per cent, per annum. 
Two per cent, per annum, therefore, may be taken as the ratio of 
the natural increase of the free colored population. The excess 
over two percent, must, then, have been derived from emancipations. 

III. 

Rate per cent, per annum of increase of Population of the United 

States. 



Years. 


AVhites. 


Free colored 

8.22 


Slaves. 

2.79 


Free colored 
and Slaves. 

3.22 


All 
comliiiied. 


1790 to 1800 


3.56 


3.50 


1800 to 1810 


3.GI 


7.20 


3.34t 


3.75 


3.64 


1810 to 1820 


3.43 


2.77 


2.95 


2.93 


3.33 


1820 to J830 


3.38 


3.41 


3.01 


3.06 


3.32 


1830 to 1840 


3.46 


2.08 


2.32 


2.33 


3.26 


Average 


3.48 


4.73 


2.88 


3.06 


3.41 



Adopting this rule of computation, we find that the emancipations 
in the slave states, from 1790 to 1830, must have been 131,700. If 
to this we add one-half of the number who were free in 1790, or 
30,000, it makes the total emancipations up to 1830 amount to 161, 
700. The extent of the pecuniary sacrifice made to the cause of 
emancipcdion by benevolent men involved in slavery, will be better 
understood by estimating the number emancipated at $350 each, 
which gives a product of $56,595,000. This estimated value is low 
enough. 

'i'o this sum, however, should be added the number of slaves 
emancipated and sent to Liberia, which, up to 1843, amounted to 
2,290. If to these are added the emancipated slaves sent out to 

* We find the following statement in relation to the number of slaves in tlio 
United Slates at an earlier period, in the American Almanac. At the timo 
of the Declaration of Independence, iu 177G, the whole number of slaves waa 
estimated at 500,000, viz. : 

Massachusetts, 3,000 [ New Jersey, 

Ivliode Island, 4, .370 Pennsylvania, 

Counecticut, 5,000 | Delaware, 

IVew Hampshire, 029 | Maryland, 

New York, 15,000] Virginia, 



7,600 N. Carolina, 
10,000 S. Carolina, 
9,000 1 Georgia, 
80,000 
165,000 1 Total, 



76,000 

110,000 

16,000 



501,599. 

t It should have been stated that Louisiana was admitted between ISOO and 
1810, bringing in 39,000 Africans. This produced the increase of the ratio for 18.10 



18 Emcnuipation of Slaves in the United States. 

Africa since that period, the number of which we cannot at present as- 
ceitain, we shall have more than another million of dollars to add to the 
above sum, liuis making the amount sacrificed to the cause of eman- 
cipation butliiile short oi fiflii-ii<j;hl niUlions of dollars. 

Hut in granting the slave his freedom, it seemed to be decided by 
common consent, that the Britisli statesman was right in asserting 
that Xegroes could not become lifpublicans. The right of suflVage 
was not extended to them. 'I'he stimulus of entering into compeiition 
for the highest posts of honor was not ailbrded to the man of color to 
prompt liim to great mental ell'ort. Able to find employment only in the 
more menial occupations, his opportunities for intellectual advancement 
were poor, and his prospects of moral improvement still more gloomy. 

These results of emancipation in the northern states were watched 
with great interest by the philanthropic citizens of the slave slates. 
The liberation of the slaves in the free states had fallen so far short 
of securing the amount of good anticipated, that the friends of tlie 
colored man became less urgent and zealous in their etlbrts to secure 
further legislative action, while the opponent of the measure was 
furnished with a new argument to sustain him in his course of hostil- 
ity to emancipation, and was soon able to secure the passage of laws 
for its prohibition, under the specious plea that a large increase of the 
free colored i)opulalion by emancipation could not be productive of 
good eitber to themselves or to the -wliites. 

That some powerful cause operated in checking emancipations 
after 1810, and that it again received a new impulse from 1820 to 
1830, is undeniable. The number emancipated in tbe slave states, 
during the several periods, as is determined by the rule before adopted, 
was as follows : 

1790 to 1800 emancipations were 37,012 
1800 to 1810 " " 50,414 

1810 to 1820 " " 14,471 

1820 to 1830 " " 33,7 72 '^ 

1830 to 1840 " " 000 

From 1700 to 1810 some of the most ])Owerful minds in the 
nation were directed to the consideration of tlie enormous evils of 
slavery, and llie ell'ects of their labors are exhibited in tiie number of 
emancipations made chiring that period. The dechne of emancipa- 
tions alter 1810, we believe to l)e due to the cause assigned aI)ove — 
the little benefit, ajiparently, which had resulted from the liberation 
of the slaves, and the consequent relaxation of illort l)y tlie fiiends of 
emancipation. 

The impulse given to emancipation between 1820 and 1830, it is 
believeil, was caused i)y the fuorable inlhu-nces exerted by the 
C'olonizalion Society, wiiich enjoyed a great degree of popularity 
(luring ibis period. Hut from lb30 to 1840, the period when the 
Society had the fewest friends, the increase of the free colored 

•The 10,0(10 cin3ni-ii>;ilcil in rstw Vi>rk lifjng iIiJiiili;il, will leave 23,77.; iti this 
perioil. 



Emancipation of Slaves in llie United Sla!es. 19 

population was reduced to only two per cent, per annum, sliowing 
t!iat emancipations nnist have nearly ceased, or lliat the deaths among 
our I'ree colored people are so nearly equal to the births, that some 
decisive measures are demanded, by considerations of humanity, to 
place them under circumstances more favorable than they at present 
enjoy. 

It may be well in this place to call attention to the fact, that while 
ihe natural increase of our free colored population cannot exceed (wo 
per cent, per annum, that of the slaves, notwithstanding the numerous 
emancipations, lias been three per cent, per annum, excepting in the 
first period, when the disparity in the sexes produced by the slave 
trade might create a greater mortality than would afterward occur ; 
and in the last period, between 1830 and 1840, during which the 
great revulsions in business, producing an immense number of bank- 
ruptcies in the south, caused thousands of embarrassed deblors to 
remove their slaves to Texas, beyond the reach of their creditors. 
The slaves thus removed, not being included in the census of 1840, 
caused a reduction in the ratio of our slave increase. See table III. 

Thus we find, that in the earlier periods of our history, the 
promptings of philanthropy and the influence of Christian principle 
produced a public sentiment which controlled legislation, and broke 
the chain of the slave. And where legislation failed, it operated with 
equal power on the hearts of men, and produced the same salutary 
efl'ecls. But while emancipation was found to have produced to the 
white man the richest fruits, it was observed, with painful feelings, 
that to the colored man it had been productive of'iittle else than the 
"Apples of Sodom.'* 

These results of emancipation led to anxious inquiries in relation 
to the disposal of the free colored population. It was all-important, 
in the judgment of the friends of the colored man, that he should be 
placed under circumstances where the degradation of centuries might 
be forgotten, and where he might become an honor to his race and a 
benefactor to the world. The conviction forced itself upon their 
minds, that a separate political organization — a Government of 
his oivn, where he woidd be free in fact as well as in name — was 
the only means by which they could fully discharge the debt due to 
him, and place him in a position where his prospects of advancement 
would be based upon a sure foundation. 

These remarks bring us to the consideratioii of the third branch 
of our subject. 

III. The provision to be made for the people of color when 
liberated. 

A separate political organization was decided upon, and Coloniza- 
tion, -at a distant point, beyond the influence of the whites, considered 
the only means of future security to the colored man. To select the 
field for the founding of the future African Empire was not such an 
easy task. The history of the Indian tribes had proved, but to? 
forcibly, that an establishment upon tlie territory of the United States 



20 Colonization to Liberia. 

would soon become unsafe, in consequence of ihe rapid and universal 
extension of llie white population. The unsettled state of the South 
Aiueiiean Republics was considered as offering still less security. 
I'^urope had no room for them, nor desire to possess them. Eng^land 
had already removed those cast upon herself and her Canadian pos- 
sessions, hy the casualties of war, back a^ain to Africa, and founded 
her Colony of Sierra Leone. 'J'he only remaininsJ- point was Africa. 
Its western coast was of most easy access, beins; but little further from 
us than Havre or Liverpool. The condition of its native population 
ollered many obstacles to the establishment of a colony. But the 
inducements to select it as the field of the enterprise in coiitem[ila- 
tion were also many. It was the land of the fathers of those who 
were to emigrate. It was deeply sunk in both moral and inlelleclual 
darkness, 'i'he lowest rites of Pagan worship were widely practised. 
Human sacrifices extensively prevailed, and even cannibalism often 
added its horrors to fill up the picture of its dismal degradation. 
And, as though the Spirit of Evil had resolved on concentrating in 
one point all the enormities that could be invented by the fiends of 
the nether pit, the slave trade was added to the catalogue, to stimulate 
the worst passions of the human heart, and produced developments 
of wickedness and of cruelty, at the bare recital of which humanity 
shudders. Except at a few points, no ray of moral light, to guide to 
a blissfid eternity, had yet penetrated the more than midniglit moral 
darkness which had for ages shrouded the land. The deadly inllu- 
enre of the climate, together with the interference of the slave trade, 
had hitherto defeated the success of missionary ellbrt, and there 
seemed to be no hope for the moral renovation of Alrica but through 
the agency of men of African blood, whose constitutions could be- 
come adapted to tiie climate, and who could tlms gain a foothold upon 
the continent, repel the slave traders, and introduce civilization and 
tlie srospel. 

Here, then was a field for the action of tlie freed-men of Uie United 
Stales. Here was a theater upon which to exhil)it before the world 
the capacities of the colored race. Here, too, coidd be solved the 
proltlem of the value of the republican for.Ti of government. And, 
ahove all, here could be fully tested tlie regenerating, the elevating, 
and the humanizing power of the gospel of Christ. 

In commencing the seldement of a colony of colored persons on 
the coast of Africa, two objects were to be accom|)lished : 

I. 'I'o improve the condition of the free colored j)eople of the 
I'nitcd States. 

'J. 'I'o civili/c and christianize Afiica. 

To tlnse ol)j(,-cls the friends of the colored man ilevoled tlieniselves. 
'J'he fii.st emigrants were sent out in 1820. 'J'he jH-ciuiiarv means 
of the society were never very great, and its j)rogress in sendini: out 
euiii/rants and in liuihling up the colony has nicessarily been slow. 
I'rom the first it met with violent opposition from the slave trailers on 
the eoa.sl of Africa, who, by creatini: the impression Ujion the minds 
of the natives that the colonisLs would prevent their further conncctioii 



Colonization to Liberia. 21 

with the slave trade, and tlius cut off their cliief source of acqi;iriiif» 
wcaUh, inflamed the niirJs of the chiefs, and prompted them to make 
war upon the colonists. Soon after the settlement of the colony, the 
native warriors, one thousand strong, attacked the emigrants, who 
numhered but thirty-five eflective men. But a kind Providence 
shielded them from the infuriated savages who assailed them, and 
enabled that handful of men to defeat their foes, in two successive 
assaults, separated from each other by several weeks of time, and, 
finally, to establish themselves in peace in all their borders. 

Additional emigrants, from year to year, were sent out. Mission- 
aries labored, with more or less faithfulness, in establishing schools 
and in preaching the gospel. The natives, in a few years, became 
convinced that the colonists were their true friends, and that the 
adoption of civilized habits would secure to them greater comforts 
than could be obtained by a continuation of the slave trade. 'J'heir 
children were sent to school with those of the colonists. A moral 
renovation commenced and progressed until, in the course of twenty- 
six years from the landing of die first emigrants at Monrovia, the 
colony attained a condition of strength warranting its erection into an 
Independent Republic. Accordingly, in July, 1847, its independence 
Nvas declared, and a population of 80,000 adopted the constitution and 
laws, and became members of the Republic. Its newly-elected 
President, J. J. Roberts, a man of color, in his recent visit to 
England, France and Germany, was treated with great respect, and 
found no ditliculty in securing the acknowledgment of the indepen- 
dence of the Republic of Liberia by the two former governments. 

But it may be said, that, after all, but litde has been done, compared 
with the means expended, in this effort to make provision for the 
free colored people, and for the introduction of a Christian civilization 
into Africa. A more striking view of the results will be brought out 
by contrasting the products of the laoors of the American Coloniza- 
tion Society with some of the other efforts which have been made to 
rescue Africa from the wrongs inflicted upon her. 

England, mighty in power, and possessing the means of executing 
magnificent enterprises, has expended, as already stated, more than 
one hundred millions of dollars for the suppression of the slave trade 
and the civilization of Africa. But her labors and her treasures have 
been spent in vain. Her gold might better have been sunk in the 
ocean. The monster, hydra-like, when smitten and one head severed 
from the body, has constantly reproduced two in its place ; and, at 
this moment, as before shown, it is prosecuted with greater activity 
than for many years. 

It must be remembered that these efforts of Great Britain have 
been made during the period of the existence of the American Col- 
onization Society, and in seeming contempt of its pigmy efforts. For 
years previous to the independence of Liberia, and while England 
was aiming at making Africa a dependencj' of her Crown, she, on 
several occasions, manifested a disposition to cripple the energies of 
our colony. And so extensive were the agejicies she seems to have 



22 Colonization to Liberia. 

employed, that it is now matter of wonder that she had not succeeded 
in wholly crushing the Colonization enterprise, and securing to herself 
the control of that richest of all the tropical portions of the world. 
Bui all iier cllorls at checking the progress of this heaven-born enter- 
prise have been as fruitless as those adopted by her in reference to 
the slave trade, or for civilizing Africa. The fact stands acknow- 
ledged before the work), that Great Britain, after the expenditure of 
more than one hundred millions of dollars, has failed in suppressing the 
slave trade on one mile of coast beyond the liniiis of her colonies; 
while our colonization efforts have swept it from nearly ybwr hundred 
miles of coast, where it formerly existed in its chief strength. 

But why is it that there is such a marked indiflerence in the results? 
Why is it that the Colonization Society, with a yearly income some- 
limes of only $10,000, and rarely ever reaching $50,000, should have, 
in twenty -six years, annihilated the slave trade on 400 miles of coast, 
and secured the blessings of freedom to 80,000 men, formerly slaves, 
and have succeeded in binding, by treaties, 200,000 more, never again 
to engage in the traffic in their brethren, — while Great Britain, with 
all her wealth and power, has accomplished nothing? 

We will not undertake to answer these questions. It cannot 
always be discerned by men why the Ruler of the Universe often 
defeats the best devised human schemes, which to them may seem 
certain of success ; and prospers those which, to human foresight, 
were the least promising. We need oidy remind you that Great 
Britain has relied, almost exclusively, upon the employment of 
p/ii/siccd force to accomplish her purposes, while the Colonization 
Society has depended, as exclusively, upon moral means. The 
agencies it has employed have been tlie humble mechanic, the hus- 
bandman, the school-master, the missionary, and the Bil)le. And, 
though often thwarted in its purposes by tiiose who felt interested in 
its overthrow, yet, relying upon moral means, and never resorting to 
force but in self-defense, it has signally triumphed and put to sliame 
the wisdom of men and the power of kingdoms. Its operations have 
proved that the schoolmaster, the missionary, and the Bible, possess a 
moral power infinitely more potent than coronets and crowns. 

These results go very far toward proving the truth of the proposi- 
tion, announced in the outset, — that the Gospel of Christ is the 
medium througii wiiich God operates in bringing mankind into sub- 
jertion to his will, and that a reliance upon any other means for the 
moral redem])ti()u of tiie nations of the world, must prove an utter 
failure. 

In view of all these results, we are fully warranted in maintaining 
that the Colonization Society, in its measures for benrfuting the 
colored ppo|)Ie. has done an incahndable amoimt of good, and demands 
our confidcnco and our supjiort, and that it is justly entitled to the 
paternity of three measures wliicii have been productive of the great- 
t'St good to Afiica : 

1 . 'J'lic procuring of the lirst legal enactments declaring the slave 
trade piracv. 



Injiuencc of Climate on Colored Men. 



23 



2. The total extinction of that cruel traffic from near 400 miles of 
the coast of Africa. 

3. The establishment of an Independent Christian Republic on 
tliat coivtincnt. 

Tliere is another feature of this question, of the disposal of the 
free colored population of the United States, which demands attention, 
and is of the utmost importance in selecting for them a home. Tlie 
northern latitudes of the United Slates do not furnish a suitable 
home for men of JJfrican descent. The evidence of the truih of 
tliis proposition is furnislied by their own movements when left free 
to act. The census tables supply the testimony upon this subject. 

By referring to tahle III, it will be seen that the ratio of the natural 
increase of the free colored population is two per cent, per annum. 
The knowledge of this fact furnishes the key to determine tlie in- 
crease or decrease, by emigration, in any state or group of states. 

IV. 
Free colored population in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, 
Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Vermont. 



YEARS. 


1799. 


1800. 
17,317 


1810. 


1820. 


1830. 
217331 


1840. 


Total number 


13,126 


19,488 


2 1 ,248 


■22,634 


Actual increase 




4,191 


2,171 


1,760 


83 


1,303 


Increase per cent. 














per annum 




3.19 


1.25 


0.90 


0.03 


0.61 


Slaves in do. 


3,886 


1,340 


418 


145 


48 


23 



In the prosecution of the investigation of the question before us, 
the effect of climate upon tlie ..African constitution, we find that 
previous to 1790, the desire of the manumitted slave to escape from 
the scenes of his oppressions had given to tlie six New England 
states a free colored population of 13,i26. From 1790 to 1800 the 
census tables show that the line of emigration was still northward, 
and augmented their ratio of increase more than one-third over the 
natural rate. But during the next forty years, ending with 1840, 
their ratio of increase, as shown in table IV, was rapidly diminished, 
and ft-11 so far below the ratio of their natural increase, that from 1820 
to 1830, with a free colored population of 21,248, they had an in- 
crease in these ten years of only eighty-three persons. The aggre- 
gate for the whole period stands thus: In 1810 they had a free 
colored population of 19.488, and in 1840 but 22,634, being an in- 
crease of only 3,140; while their natural increase, if retained, would 
have augmented their numliers to 33,648. This diminution must 
have been caused bv emigration back again toward the south, 
because we find that New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, had 
a corresponding' increase during this period, with the exception of 
the last ten yeais, when they also lost a portion of tluir natural 
increase. 

But this tendency of colored men to avoid northern latitudes \s 
quite as fully proved by a comparison of the northern parts of New 



2-4 Jnjliience of Climate on Colored Men. 

York, Pom .^vlvania and Ohio, willi their soiitliorn portions, as it is 
cxiiihiietl ill the case of the New England States, when compared 
with those fm-llier south. Take, for example, a few of the counties 
in the north-east of Ohio. In 1810, (Jeauga had only 3 persons of 
color, Ashtabula 17, Lake 21, Portage 39, Summit 42, Medina 13, 
Lorain 02, 'IVumlniU 70, and Cuyahoga, including the city of Cleve- 
land, 121, in all 388. Now look at a {c\v of the counties bordering 
the slave states and in the more southern part of the state. Belmont, 
in 1810, had 724, (Jallia 799, Highland 780, Brown 014, Ross 1195, 
Frard^lin 805, and Hamilton 2540. 

This contrast, which might be extended mucli further, reveals tlie 
fact, that any one of the last named counties, in the southern portion 
of the state, had nearly double, and several of them more than 
double the number of colored persons that the whole eight northern 
counties above named included. 

But to give a more f()rcil)le illustration of tlie truth of our proposi- 
tion, allow me to extend this contrast between the norlliern and 
soutiiern counties of Ohio, so as to include die whole tree colored 
population of the stale. By drawing a line east and west across the 
state, so as to divide its territory into about equal parts, giving an 
excess of counties, as now divided, to the nortli, the result is, that in 
1840, the 38 northern counties, now divided into 42, included only 
2.360^ persons of color, while the 40 counties of the southern ludf 
embraced a colored population of 15,000. And if we deduct Stark, 
Columbiana and Harrison on the east, and Mercer on the west, from 
the northern counties, they will have left, in the 30 remaining coun- 
ties, a free colored population of only 1372, or a little more than half 
the number in Hamilton county. I append the list of all the coun-< 
ties, that it may be accessible to those who may wish to prosecute 
this invesliijation.* 

After making all due allowance for the alledged defect of energy in 
the colored man, as accounting for his not seeking a residence in the 
north ; and what has still more inlluence on his mind — tlie greater 
indnlirence which he finds from tlie planter of the south, now settled 
in our more southern counties, than he does from the nnrthern man 
who is a strani^er to his haliits, — there is, we allirm, ample teslimonv 
to prove, that the northern latitudes of the United States ilo not furnish 
a suitable climate for men of African l)lood, and that thev are ct)'.i- 
gregating as far south as circumstances will j)ermit. This fact, we 
insist, |)roves conclusively the necessity of securing a tropical home 
fr»r colored men. 

lint in addition to all the foregoing details, which prove the inadapt- 
atioii of northern latitudes to the African, we have, very recently, the 
fart revealed to us in a late census of Upper Canada, that in that 
province, where we had been a thousand times assured that from 
20.000 to 25,000 runaway slaves from thi! United Slates had found 
refuge, there were, in 1847, barely 5,571 colored persons in tlie 

•Sep Note, pnpe 21. 



Influence of Climate on Colored Men. 



25 



colony. In lliis statement, however, which includes tne wholo 
twenty districts, there may be an error in one of them which may 
vary this result. 

But 1 cannot dismiss this part of our subject without a few remarks. 
The citizens of our northern counties often charge us, of the south- 
ern, wiib being destitute of the ordinary feelings of humanity and 
benevolence, because we are disposed to discourage the further immi- 
gration of colored men into the state, and because we advocate a 
separation of the races by colonization. And this tliey do with an 
apparent seriousness that warrants us in concluding that they believe 
what they say. Perhaps if we had only three to a county, like old 

'I'he following statement, referred to on the previous page, gives the colored popu- 
lation of Ohio in the several counties, commencing at the northern and southern 
extremities, as presented in the census of 1840. 

Hamilton, 2576 

Clermont, 123 

Brown, 614 



Adams, 63 

Scioto, 206 

Lawrence, • • 148 

Gallia, 790 

Meigs, 28 

Jackson, • . . 315 

Pike 329 

Hi-h!anJ, 786 

Butler, 254 

\^^arren, 341 

Clinton, 377 

Eoss 1195 

Hocking, 46 

Athens, • . 55 

Washington, 269 

j\Ionroe, 13 

Morgan, 68 

Perry, . 47 

Fairtield 342 

Pickaway, 333 

Fayette, 239 

Greene, 344 

Clark, 200 

Montgomery, 376 

Preble, 88 

Darke, 200 

Miami, 211 

Shelby, 263 

Logan, 407 

Champaign, 328 

Madison, 97 

Franklin, 805 

Licking, 140 

Muskingum, 563 

Guernsey, 190 

Belmont, 742 

Jeflerson, 497 



Ashtabula, 17 

Lake, 21 

Geauga, 3 

Cuyahoga, 121 

Trumbull, 70 

Portage, 29 

Summit, 43 

Medina, 13 

Lorain, 63 

Eric, 97 

Huron, 106 

Sandusky 41 

Ottawa, 5 

Seneca, 65 

Wood, 33 

Lucas, 54 

Henr}', 6 

Williams, 3 

Paulding, 

Van Wert, • . 

Mercer, 204 

Allen, 23 

Hancock, 8 

Hardin, 4 

Marion, 53 

Crawford, ^ 

Pichland, 65 

Wayne, 41 

Holmes, 3 

Stark, 204 

Carroll, 49 

Columbiana, 417 

Harrison, 163 

Tuscaravi'as, 71 

Coshocton, 38 

Knox, 63 

Delaware, 76 

Union, • . . 78 

Morrow, 
Mahoning, 
Auglaize, 
Defiance. 



26 



Injliience of Climate and Foreign Emigralion. 



Gcaiiirn, wc, too, mi^ht Vic disposed to catrh tliom for pel^i, to amuse 
our ciiildren, as we do mockiii<^ birds and paroquets. But with us 
tlie novelty of seeing a colored man has long since passed away, and 
we no longer make pets of them, on account of color, but treat them 
precisely as we do oilier men. Tlie upright and inckislrious we respect 
and encourage. The immoral and degraded we wish anywhere else 
than iu our households or as near neighbors. 

V. 

Free colored population in New York, Xew Jersey, and Pcnn^njl- 

vania. 



YEARS. 


1790 
13,953 


1800 
29,340 


1810 
55,668 


1820 
74,742 


1830 
101,103 


1840 


Total number 


118,925 


Actual increase 




15,387 


26,328 


19,074 


26,321 


17,822 


Increase per cent 














per annum 




11.02 


8.97 


3.42 


3.54 


1.76 


Slaves in do. 


36,484 

• 


34,471' 26.663 


17,850 


2,732 


712 



But in addition to climate, tlie colored man has another formidable 
adversary to contend with. New York, New Jersey, and Pennsyl- 
vania, as before stated, and as the figures in talile V show us, liad 
accessions to their colored population much beyond the natural in- 
crease on their original numbers up lill 1830. But from 1830 to 1840 
tliese states also commenced repelling tlieir free colored population, 
and their ratio of increase was reduced consideral)ly below two per 
cent, per annum — Pennsylvania, however, still having a ratio of;8 y^-^, 
showing that she had not been as much affected as the other two 
states, though between 1820 and 1830 lier ratio had been reduced to 
1 yY^ per cent, per annum. 

VI. 

Free colored population of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. 

1 820 T"l 830 I 1840" 



YEARS. 


1790 
"24^718 


1800 
47,979 


1810 


Total number 


77,633 


Actual increase 




23,261 


29,654 


Increase per cent. 








per annum 




9.41 


6.1 H 


Slaves 


405,350 


457,584 


508,197 



89,817,116,141 128,781 
12,184 26,324, 12,640 

1.55' 2.931 1.08 
537,060 576.043;530,0S7 



VII. 

Free colored population of North Carolina, South Carolina, and 

Georgia. 



TKAHS. 


1790 
7,174 


1800 

11,247 
4,073 


1810 
T6^(J2l 
5,374 


1820 

23,205 
6,,584 


18.S0 


1840 


Total number 
Actual increase 
Increase per cent 


29,950 
6,745 


33,761 
3,811 


per annum 
vSlavcs 


230,930 


5.07 
338,851 


4.77 
470,407 


3.96 
613,148 


2.90 
778,533 


1.27 
853,799 



hijluence of Slavery and Foreign Emigration. 



27 



Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, SoiUli Carolina, 
and Georiiia, also repulsed nearly one-half of their natural increase 
hetween 1830 and 1840, as exhibited in tables VI and VII, showing 
that the emigration from the northern states was not passing in that 
direction. 

VIII. 
Free colored populalion of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama. 



YKARS. 


1790 
~^ 475 


1800 


1810 


1820 


1830 


1840 


Total number 


1,050 


3,030 


6,353 


11,044 


14,880 


Actual increase 




575 


1,980 


3,323 


3,691 


3,836 


Increase per cpnt. 














per annum 




12.10 


18.85 


10.96 


7.35 


3.47 


Slaves 


15,247 


53,927 


125,096 254,278 


424,365 


618,849 



Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama, though for a time, receiving 
large accessions of free colored people emigrating, probably, from 
Virginia and North Carolina, westward into their bounds, seem also 
to have checked it, between 1830 and 1840, to a considerable extent. 
But as more energetic measures have since been adopted to repel all 
immigration, extending even to the selling of the intruders into 
slavery, as was the case last year in Kentucky; the census of 1850 
will no doubt exhibit a reduction of the ratio of these states, also, to 
the "natural rate of increase, if not below it. 

liouisiana, alone, of all the larger slave states, has maintained a 
uniform increase of her free colored population. Her position on 
the Mississippi affords great facilities to enterprising colored men, 
wishing to escape from the rigois of northern winters, to penetrate 
her territory. 

IX. 
Free colored population of Louisiana. 



YKARS. 


1790 


1800 


1810 


1820 


1830 


1840 


Total number 
Actual increase 






7,585 


10,960 
3,375 


16,710 
5,750 


25.503 

8,792 


Increase per cent. 

per annum 
Slaves 






34,660 


4.44 
69,064 


5.24 

109,588 


5.26 
168,452 



In the slave states, the prejudices and the rigid laws in relation 
to their free colored people, will account for the losses which they 
have sustained. But in New York and New .lersey, some other 
cause must have exerted a repelling inllucnce, or there would not 
have been such a desertion of that region by colored men. 'J'his 
cause will, we believe, be found to exist in the foreign emigration 
into our country. The foreign emigrant, escaping from the tyranny 
of the despotisms which have so long crushed his energies, and 
where he had been accustomed to work for a mere subsistence, is 
overjoyed, on reaching this country, to receive a rate of wages for 
Avhich the colored man is unwilling to labor. He is thus the most 



28 



JnJIuence of Slavery and Foreign Emigration. 



formidable rival of the colored man, and supplants him in Iiis employ- 
ments and drives iiim from his temporary home. But while this 
rivalry of the foreigner, the prfjuiicc of the slave holder., and the 
infiiuncc of climate, seem to create insuperable obstacles to the 
success of any sclieme of securing to colored men a permanent home 
in liie nordi, it affords a stron<r proof of the wisdom of tlie scdieme of 
African Colonization, where the rivalry of white men and the influ 
enc-e of climate, or the prejudice against color, can never reach him 
or interrupt him in his pursuits. 

But there is still another suliject connected with the movements of 
the free colored people which greatly interests the citizens of Ohio. 
"We have seen that a regular movement of the free colored population, 
from north to south, has been in progress ever since 1800, and that it 
was' only checked, in its southern course, by reaching the borders of 
the slave states. But after 1830 this floating mass took a new direc- 
tion. As tlie foreign emigration first touches the eastern coast, its 
effects are lirst felt there, and from thence it rolls westward. While 
the current of the colored emigration, therefore, is setting in from the 
north, it is met by this opposing tide from tlie east, and deflected to 
the west. 

On turning to the M'est, v,-e find that while tliis continuous stream 
of colored emigration has been pouring out of all the states north-east, 
east, and south-east of us, tliey have been concentrating with almost 
equal rapidity in the Ohio valley. 

X. 
Free colored population in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. 



YEARS. 


1790 


1800 


1810 


1820 


1830 
14,834 


1840 


Total number 




500 


2,90.5 


6,598 


28,105 


Actual increase 






2,405 


3,693 


8,236 


13,271 


Increase per cent. 














per annum 






48.10 


12.71 


12.48 


8.94 



Look at the figures in table X. Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, in 
1800, had 500 free persons of color in their bounds. In 1840 they 
numbered 28,105. If the influx, since 1840, has been as great as in 
the preceding period, these three states will have a free colored popu- 
lation, at present, of over 50,000, of wdiicli the share of Ohio is 
30.000. 

'I'o afford a more striking contrast of the position in which we 
stand, as compared with the six New England Stales, it is only 
necessary to say, that the ratio of the annual increase of the free 
Cf)Iorcd population of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, from 1820 to 1830, 
doubled t hi ir nvmhcrs in eight y.ars, while that of the former si.t 
states would require, to double tlieirs, a period of two hundred and 
fftij six years. 

But to avoid a charge of unfiirnrss in selecting a period of only 
ten years, and that the most favoral)h' to our purpose, we shall extend 
the contrast to forty years, from 1840 back to 1800, and the result ia 



Fret Colored Emigration into Ohio. 29 

still more startlin<T. During tliis period of forty yenrs, ihc six New 
ICngland Slates did not increase their colored population quiie one 
third, ( it was -j-Vo ) while Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, have iloulled 
J'fy-five times on their original nunihers. Our increase, therefore, 
when compared with theirs for a period of forty years, stands as 55 
In .',. 

Here, now. is presented a condition of things which demands the 
attention of the Legislature and the people of Ohio. We have, for 
viars, been disposed to evade the question of the provision to be 
made for the peoj)le of color. The causes operating to concentrate 
ihein in the Ohio valley are beyond our control, and they must con- 
tinue to congre<:ate liere. Nor can we check this movement by any 
ordinary precautions, were we disposed to make the effort, because 
we cannot, liy any legislation of ours, reach the causes which comjiel 
tlieiu to leave the other states. We cannot change the climate of the 
norUi-east, nor mold the African constitution so that it may endure 
the rigors of its winters ; and much less can we impart to the colored 
man a spirit of energy and activity in business which shall enable 
him to compete with the New Englander. We are still less able to 
roll back the mighty wave of foreign emigration, which, annually, 
supplies to tiie east a surplus of cheap lal)or, and drives the man of 
color from his employments, and compels him to wander to the west 
in search of bread. And it is still more impracticable for us to 
induce the slave states to repeal the laws and give up the prejudices 
which drive out the free colored man from amongst them. The 
colored people, if disposed, cannot extend westward and southward. 
The iron wall of slavery and the prohibitions in th.e new constitutions 
of Illinois and Iowa, will prevent emigration in that direction. They 
are, therefore, shut up, imprisoned among us, and instead of any 
diminution, we must prepare for an increase of tlieir numbers. 

It is a fact well understood, that in the slave states, no movement, 
involving emancipation to any great extent, can now take place 
except in connection ivilh the removal of the freedmen from 
among them. Some of them at present talk of emancipation and 
colonization in Africa, but if we should open our doors as widely as 
many desire, the slave holder need not tax himself with the expense 
of the passage of his slaves to Liberia. It will be cheaper and less 
troublesome to let them alone, and they will soon put themselves 
under tlie care of their loving brothers across the Ohio river. And, 
\\ adopting this course, the slave holder may feel that he is conferring 
a favor upon us, because, on seveial occasions, where masters had 
emancipated their slaves, and started them for Liberia, they have been 
persuaded to escape to Ohio or Pennsylvania. 

Several of the border states will, before many years, become free 
states, because of the growing conviction among the people that the 
presence of slaves upon their soil has created a blighting influence — 
that it has paralyzed the physical and moral energies of the white 
youth — that until the slaves are removed, the sons of their yeomanry 
will not engage in field labor, and that until this revolution is eHecled 



''0 Free Colored Emigration into Ohio. 

tlic slave states cannot prosper as the free states have done. They 
are further convinced that tlie presence of colored people, as free 
la'/orers, will exert equally as baneful an effect upon the industry of 
the whites, as the presence of the slave has done. We have failed, 
in a twenty years war of words, to chanire these opinions. 'J^hcy 
know that their sons scorn the iilea of laboring upon an equality with 
men of servile origin. This may all be wrong, but that does not 
alter the fact. Tiic people of the slave states will never consent to 
emancipation, 1)ut in connection with the removal of the freediiieu. 
'J'his is their fixed purpose : and any measure for the melioration of 
the cnudition of the colored man which docs not include this fact, 
and adapt itself to it, will be so far defective. 

Now, it seems evident, that to whatever extent emancipation mav 
take place, whether by individuals or by states ; and further, to what- 
ever degree the slave stales may carry their hostility to the free 
colored people among them, and succeed in driving tliem out; to 
the same extent may we expect to be made the receivers of the un- 
fortunate wanderers, unless we can divert the current of emigration 
in some other direction. 

With all these facts before us — the influence of climate — the rival- 
ry of the foreign emigrant — the prejudices of the slave holder — the 
adverse legislation of the slave states — the rapid concentration of the 
free colored people along the southern margin of the Ohio valley — 
and the impracticability of their emigrating further soiitli or west — it 
must be apparent, at once, tliat we occupy a very ditferent position 
from that of the New England States and the northern counties of 
Ohio. We are constantly receiving large accessions from the slave 
states. Many of our towns and villages have had their colored 
population (loul)led since 1840, and there is no prospect, at present, 
of their influx being ciiecked. 

The Ohio Black Laws, though designed, oriijinallv, to operate 
as a check upon colored immigration, have wholly failed of their 
ol)jcct, and have only added auoliier to the numerous ineniciint 
measures adopted for protection against the evils generated by slaverv 
— evils so numerous and complicated, that, often the remedies applied 
only increase the malady. 

And here we must be allowed to remark, that few men can excel 
our northern friends in depicting the horrors of slavery. They have 
8tU(he(l it chiedy in that point of view. Its degrading and brutifyiug 
tendencies, generating vices the most debasing and destructive, liave 
been portrayed, but too truly, in our hcarino-, by them, a thousand 
times. 'J'hev, of course, expect us to l)elieve their statements and to 
adopt their views of the odiousness of the system. 

Now, in return, we ask of them that they shall believe us. And 
if on(! half they have told us be true, in relation to the low stale of 
morals — the deep anil damning dcpravitv of the victims of slaveiv — 
llicn visit US with the pla<rue, or any other jjhi/siraf calamity, rather 
than l)rin!: this moral pmlilence into contact wiih our children. We 
speak hut the common scnliincnt of the great mass of our citizens. 



Necessity of Colonization. '.W 

These sentiments are not generated by hostile feelings to the colon-d 
man, any more than the missionary, who wishes to guard well ilw. 
virtues of his children and impart to them a nobility of thought and 
sentiment, should be charged with hating the degraded Hindoo or 
Hottentot, for whose intellectual and moral elevation he risks his lift-, 
because he sends his cliildren back to a Christian country to be edu- 
cated by Christian friends. 

Many of the first settlers of southern Ohio had fled from Virgini.i. 
Kenliicky, and the Carolinas, to rear tlieir families beyond the reach 
of the demoralizing eflects of slavery, and in the enactment of the 
l^lack Laws they hoped to erect an impassable barrier between them- 
selves and slavery, or any of its fruits. 

It was not prejudice against color, alone, that dictated the passage 
of the Black Laws of Ohio, and which has kept them so long upon 
our statute book, but it was a dictate of self-preservation. It was a 
determination to confine slavery, with all its fruits, within the limits 
where it existed, and to guard themselves and their children against 
moral contamination by contact with those unfortunate beings whose 
deplorable degradation has been so eloquendy, and often, but too truly 
delineated to us. 

A repeal of the Black Laws may be proper;* some modification of 
them, at least, is demanded. But it forms no part of the task assign- 
ed us to express an opinion on the subject. This much, however, 
we can say, that something more is needed than the repeal of these 
laws, before the colored man can have justice done him, or the public 
mind be satisfied with the posture of aifairs. 

Nor can we be persuaded that he who rai'ely ever sees a colored 
person, and who knows nothing of the unfavorable circumstances in 
which a majority of the colored people are placed, where diey are 
congregated in large numbers, is die proper man to mature measures 
for their relief. lie has not the opportunity of forming a practical 
judgment in the case, and his schemes, therefore, will be more apt to 
partake of the visionary than the practicable. 

But we are told that it is our duty to labor for the elevation and im 
provement of the colored man, and thus prepare him for citizenship. 
In reply, it is only necessary to say, that of the importance of this 
duty tlie friends of colonization are iuUy aware, and to discharge it is 
their direct and proposed aim; but Uirough the unhappy oppo.-iti(.n 
of their enemies, in this good work, who have assumed to he exclu- 
sively the friends of the man of color, inducing him to believe that 
we are his '■'■inveterate enemies,^'' we have been, to a great extent, 
excluded from that access to him requisite to die fulfillment of our 
wishes. The colored people, therefore, are not accessible to us, and 
the responsibility of Uieir improvement does not rest upon us, but 
upon those who have them in charge. And even if they were access- 
ible to us, and we had Uieir confidence, should the emigration from 
the other states continue to be as rapid as heretofore, the execution 

*This lecture was written before their repeal by the present Legislature. 



3li NecessUy of Colonization. 

of tlie task of their education would be a biirtliou too heavy for Ohio 
to bear. But had we the means, the circuuistances of iucquahty, to 
which reference lias already been made, and which neither authorita- 
tive Icirislation nor the resolves of voluntary associations can remedy, 
forbid the hope of giving that form and measure of education requisite 
to qualify any man for the high duties and enjoyments of cilizeusliin. 

AVhat then can we do? No large body of men will long remain 
contented in the bosom of any community or nation, unless in the 
enjoyment of equal social and political rights. Ignorant, and vicious, 
and lazy men are dangerous in any community ; because, not under- 
standing tlieir true interests, and but little inclined to do their duty, 
they are easily turned into an engine of evil to society. Our own 
peace and safety, therefore, demand that we should secure to our 
colored people the blessings of education and the advantages of 
political equality. 

But we firmly believe that the first of these objects, the education 
of the free colored people, can only be accomplished under circum- 
stances where the colored man can, by the labor of his own hands, 
provide for his own wants, while he is prosecuting his studies. And 
■we as fully believe, that such a combination of circumstances as will 
make the thorough education of our colored people practicable, exists 
only in Liberia. In tiiat climate winter makes no demands, and the 
labor of one man will easily support three. Schools are already or- 
ganized, and every parent is required by law to educate his children. 
In a climate, like ours, however, demanding almost constant labor 
during summer to provide for w inter, and wliere schools are access! 
ble to but ^ew of the colored people, there is but litUe to encourage 
the hope that their education can become general. To this conclusion 
intelligent colo.ed men themselves have arrived, and the erection of 
the Colored Manned lAibor School, near Columbus, Ohio, where 
200 acres of land have been secured for this object, and paid for, 
chiefly, by contributions from colored men — where education and labor 
can go hand in hand — shows tlie strength of the hold which this convic- 
tion has upon their minds. But the advantages of such an institution 
cannot be enjoyed by very many. At most,only a few hundreds c:in lie 
accommodated at the same time. Such an institution, llierefore, wiiile 
it may be of immense advantage to a few, cannot be relied upon to 
secure general education; and advantageous as it maybe to {hvse. 
few, still it will be very partial ; far from reaching that high education 
which gives character, and without wliich, ibr the slmuling and hap- 
piness of the citizen, more learning is, comparatively, of little value. 

We are also as fully convinced that it will be equally as iuij)ractica- 
ble, as their general education, to secure to our free colored people tlie 
advantages of political ccpuilily any where else than in the llepuhlic 
of Liberia, or in a new one of their own creation upon that (Continent. 

'i'hat the free colored population of our country can be raised to 
that degree of moral and intellectual elevation which they slundd 
posses.-', without the enjoyment of all the social and political privi- 
]/ f.x- wliich arc the natural birthright of man, none will pretend to 



Necessity of Colonization. 33 

claim. These blessing's must be secured to them before any mnterial 
advancement can be expected from tliem. But the opposition to 
granting them equal social and pohtical privileges in OI)io is a "fixed 
fact." It is believed that no permanent good to the colored man could 
grow out of such a measure. The granting to him the right of 
srtjfrage has been productive of no good in the states ivhich have 
conceded to him that privilege. Instead of increasing their free 
colored population, since that act of liberality, these states have had a 
r-.'gular diminution of it. The right of suffrage to the colored inan, 
where the whites have a large preponderance of numbers, seems of 
about the same utility as the tin rattle, or litUe doll, presented to the 
discontented child, to amuse it and keep it from crying. 

It is the settled conviction of nearly all our thinking men, that 
colored men, intellectually, morally, or politically, can no more flourish 
in the midst of the whites, than the tender sprout from the bursting 
acorn can have a rapid advance to maturity beneath the shade of 
the full-grown oak; while the light of the sun, so essential to its 
growth, penetrates not through the thick foliage to impart its invigora- 
ting influences to the humble tenant of the soil ; and where, each 
day, it is liable to be crushed under the feet of those who seek shelter 
from the noon-day heat beneath the boughs of its lordly superior. 

This is no overwrought picture of the condition of the free colored 
people among us. Those stimulants to mental and moral effort, 
which beget such a superiority in citizens of free governments, reach 
not to the mind of the colored man, to rouse him to action. And so 
fully convinced of this fact are intelligent colored men themselves 
becoming, that they are begiiming to act in concert in reference to 
securing the necessary territory to adopt a separate political organiza- 
tion. This affords strong grounds for hoping that the day of their 
political redemption is dawning. Heretofore they have been deluded 
with the hope that their elevation would be effected among the 
whites ; that hope is now fading from their minds. The adoption of 
measures to secure a distinct political organization is an acknowdcdg- 
ment of the truth, that a separation from the ivhites is essential to 
the prosperity of the colored man, and that colonization at some 
point oilers to him his only hope of deliverance. This is an impor- 
tant step in the progress toward a settlement of this vexed question. 

It is true, that, at present, an eye is turned, by many of those who 
are agitating this subject, toward a grant of land from Congress out 
of llie territory acquired from Mexico. As this is the only territory 
now at the disposal of Congress, and as the question of its future 
ownership will be settled during the next year, at furthest, there will 
soon be a decision of that matter. Out of that territory, if any where 
on the continent, must the donation of lands be made lor the future 
African state. And upon it, or to Liberia, must the wave of emi- 
gi-ation roll when it recedes from our borders. 

Here, then, we perceive that this question is assuming a new and 
definite form. .'3 separate political organization is desired by many 
of the colored men. But they think Liberia is too distant, and too 



31 Necessity of Colonization. 

unhcallliv, an<l llicrcfore wish a n;rant out of New ^lexico or Califor- 
nia. Tliere is, perhaps, not a man in lliis audience, nor in the nonii, 
wlio would object to such a grant lor such a purpose, so far as llie 
grant of Unileil States' property is concerned. Your speaker, for his 
j)art, is willing to raise up both hands and shout at tlie topmost pitch 
of his voice, in the cars of Congress, to secure it, if he thought it could 
be obtained, and that it would, to the occupant, be a peaceful pos- 
session, and safe for the country. But he believes it is idle, it is 
wicked, longer to keep the poor colored man pursuing phantoms 
which always must elude his grasp. We say, frankly, that we have 
no hope tliat such a grant of territory can be had from Congress. 
And even if it could, dare \fe hope that it would prove a peaceful 
home, such as prudent Christian men woidd wish to leave as a legacy 
to tlieir cliililren ? lis proximity to the slave states, it is feared, might 
lead to continual collisions. 

Ii is useless, however, to discuss this question, because, whenever 
our intelligent colored men are put in possession of the facts in relation 
to Liberia, thev must greatly prefer it to any point on this continent. 

We are aware that some of the colored orators declaim loudly 
against any attempts to persuade the free colored people to emiiriate 
to Africa, while three millions of their brethren remain behind in 
slaverv. Now, it is very natural that a benevolent heart should dic- 
tate such feelings, and we must respect their motives. But we would 
remind all such ol)jeclors to emigration to Liberia, that while three 
millions of their brethren are enchained here, there are, according to 
the best authorities, one hundred and ten millinns in Africa, eightij 
mi/lions of whom are of their own caste, includintj, no doubt, their 
own blood relations, who are mostly crushed tmder a system of 
oppression and of cruelty, and reduced to a condition of moral degra- 
dation, compared with which, American slavery, with all its woes, 
is bliss itself. These eighty millions of men are nearly all destitute 
of the gospel of Christ, and, consequently, without the elements of 
{in inttllectuul and moral renovation. The sale of their brethren 
into shivery, excepting in a few sunny spots, illuminateil by Christian 
colonies, still continues with all its attendant horrors. The slave 
trade, iiallling the utmost exertions for its suppression, is still prosr- 
cutod with unabated vigor. ' Its wretched victims are still found 
wedged together in the foul and close recesses of the slave ships, with 
scarcely space enough to each for the heart to swell in the agony of 
its despair.' All hope that it can be suppressed liy operations oti th'e 
ocean are at an end. It must be assailed where it originaleil, — on the 
land. 'I'he instrumentality to be em|)loyed must be that which the 
result of long experience dictates, — the gospel. The agents to per- 
form this great work are as clearly designated — colored Chri^itiini 
coloniftts. 'J'his combined agency of the p^nspil and colonization has 
already l)egnn to redress the wrongs of Africa. "It is fast restoring 
a continent hhrouiletl in the darkness of accumulated centuries, to the 
lights of civilization and Christianity. It is opening up to that 
degraded and impoverished people, new sources of prosperity and 



PradicahiUtij of Colonization. 



35 



new fields of enterprise in tlie boundless resources of that great con- 
tinent.' The agencies so successfully begun l)y the colonization 
scheme, need only to be sufficiently augmented to secure the regen- 
eration of Africa. 

Then, with such ample provision made for the free colored man, 
and wilh such a field of future greatness and of glory opening up 
before him, why should he not be encouraged, and why not aided. 
to enter upon his rich inheritance, instead of begging for a home on 
this continent, where, at best, his futnre prospects would be overcast 
with gloom. Does the man of color wish to speak to the southern 
slave-liolder in tones that can be heard and will be respected? instead 
of relying upon the feeble cry of three and a half inilliona in tiiis 
country, Africa lias eighti/ millions of voices which he may control, 
and whose united shout for freedom to the slave, would shake the 
fetters from his limbs and give him liberty. 



IV. The practicability of Colonizing the free people of color. 

The best mode of discussing the practicability of any scheme, is, 
first to ascertain what is to be accomplished. The following list of 
the twenty-four principal states, and the number of free colored peo- 
ple in each, in 1840, presents the amount of persons to be provided 
for, and the manner of their distribution throughout the union. 



Maine, 


1,355 


Pennsylvania, 


47,854 


Tennessee, 


5,524 


N. Hampshire, 


537 


Ohio, 


17,342 


N. Carolina, 


22,732 


Massachusetts, 


8,669 


Indiana, 


7,165 


S. Carolina, 


8,270 


Rhode IslanJ, 


3,2.38 


Illinois, 


3,598" 


Georgia, 


2,753 


Connecticut, 


8,105 


Delaware, 


16,919 


Mississippi, 


l,:i6() 


Vermont, 


730 


Maryland, 


62,020 


Missouri, 


1,574 


iVew York, 


50,027 


Virginia, 


49,842 


Alabama, 


2,039 


JN'evv Jersey, 


21,044 


Kentucky, 


7,317 


Louisiana, 


25,502 



It will be seen, under our first head, that the number of human 
beings torn from Africa, on American account alone, in 1847, all of 
whom, perhaps, were for the Brazilian market, amounted to 84,356. 
Now, we would ask whether this fact does not furnish a useful lesson 
upon the subject of the practicability of Colonization from the 
United States to Africa. 

Tlie total annual increase of the whole colored population of the 
United States, slave and free, from 1830 to 1840, was 54,356, or, 
30,000 less than the exports of slaves, in 1847, from Africa for the 
Americun market. 

The whole number of the free colored population of the UnitCL^ 
States, in 1840, Avas 386,235, or only a little over four and a half 
times greater than one year's importation from Africa. 

The total increase of the free colored population of the United 
States, from 1830 to 1840, was 6,664, annually, making the number 
torn from Africa, in one year, more than twelve and a half times as 
great as the whole annual increase of the free colored population of 
the United States. 

The total free colored population of Ohio, Is, at present, about 



V>{j Practicability of Coionizalion. 

nO.OOn, and tliat of Iiuliana and Illinois 20,000. The other slates -will 
have but a sinall advance on their free colored popuhilion of 1840. 
The exports of slaves from Africa, in one year, are, therefore, nearly 
tlirce times greater than the whole number of free colored people at 
present in Ohio ; more than four times that of Indiana and Illinois ; 
nearly four times that of the six New England stales in 1840 ; nearly 
iloubie ihat of Pennsylvania ; thirteen thousand more than that of 
New York and New Jersey ; four thousand more than Delaware 
and Maryland ; nearly double that of Virginia ; nearly seventeen 
lliousand more than double that of North Carolina, South Carolina, 
and Georgia ; nearly six times that of Kentucky, Tennessee, and 
Alabama; and nearly four times that of Louisiana. 

If, therefore, a set of desperadoes, not so numerous but that they 
have eluded detection and capture, can, in one year, accomplish all 
that is here enumerated, what could not the united ellbrls of the 
legislatures of the several slates accomplish, without oppressive taxa- 
tion, were they simultaneously to commence the work of colonizing 
the free colored people? 

Suppose each of the states in the foregoing list, were, as a prepar- 
atory measure, to appropriate to the Colonization Society, one dollar 
for each colored person in their bounds, the sum of $375,528 would 
be raised, being about one half the whole sum expended by the 
society since its origin. Now, there is scarcely one of the stales 
named, which could not give an annual appropriation of the sum 
stated, without the lax being felt by its people. 

The sum required by this scheme, to be expended by Ohio, would 
be only one cent and a ha/f for each of the two millions of her present 
population. To pay the expenses of the transportation of her whole 
30,000 free colored people, at $50 each, — the sum for which the 
colonization society agrees to take out emigrants — would cost but 
sprenfij-fwe cents for each person. But suppose Ohio could prevent 
all further immigration into the stale, and would agree to send out the 
ndtnral increuae onlij, which, at two per cent, on 30,000, would be 
GOO, the tax would be but one cent anil a half to each citizen of the 
Slate. 

Then, who will say that it will not he practicable to raise this sum 
in Ohio, on condition that six hundred persons of color, amuially, 
would vohiiiU'cr to emigrate? And which of the other stales would 
decline entering into a measure of such easy accomplishment ? Wc 
trust not one. 

As it may amuse the curious, and furnish a rule to determine tlie 
quota of each state for P'ying the cost of emigration of its natural, 
increase, wc v.ould here state, that one dollar per head, for the whole 
free colored pop\dalion, is exactly lifly dollars a head for the natural 
increase, — the ratio of increase being two per cent. One dollar a 
h(!ad, for each free colored person in a slate, will, therefore, transfer 
its natural increase lo Africa, and put them in possession of a home- 
6ti ad upon which to m ike a living. 

I shall nol, here, nler lo the probabilities of the free colored people 



Injluence of Colonization on Missionary Efforts. 37 

hciiif^ willing lo accept the ofl'ered boon of a home in Liberia, but 
leave il to another branch of our subject. 

V. Tiie influence of Colonization upon the native Africans, and 
upon Missionary ellbrts in Africa. 

On these points we shall study great brevity. The influence of 
colonization upon the native Africans has been, in all resi)ccls, beiie- 
lirial. It is only necessary to state, that in purchasing the lands 
from the native kings and head men, and thus securing the right of 
sovereignty over the soil, the inhalntanls are at once secured in the 
protection of the laws of the Liberian government, and in the enjoy- 
ment of its advantages. Those held in slavery, and they constitute 
about eight-tenths of the population, are at once emancipated. The 
same care is taken in promoting their education that is observed in 
the instruction of emigrants from the United States. When sufli- 
cienfly advanced in intelligence, they are admitted to the rights of 
citizenship. In this way, 75,000 of the natives have been emanci- 
pated from slavery, and secured in all the rights of freemen. By 
treaties with surrounding tribes, 200,000 more are bound fiot to 
engage in the slave trade, nor to go to war amongst themselves. 
These treaties secure to the respective tribes embraced, the protection 
of the Republic against all other hostile tribes. A breach of the 
conditions of these treaties, on the part of any tribe, forfeits the pro- 
tection of the colony. Thus, for ten years past, the colony has 
preserved peace amongst many petty tribes whose trade formerly 
was war. Colonization, therefore, in many respects, has done great 
good to Africa. And, in addition to all this, we may add, that such 
is the favorable impression which our colonies are beginning to send 
abroad among the native tribes, that, recently, six kings have com- 
bined and annexed their territories, including one hundred miles of 
coast, to the Maryland colony. This statement we have met with, 
as coming from Bev. Mr. Pinney, for a time the governor of Liberia. 
Tlie motive prompting these kings to annex, is, tliat they may enjoy 
the protection of the colony. 

The History of Missionary eflbrts in V/estern Africa, fully sus- 
tains the truthfulness of the pictures which have been draun of the 
fatality of the climate to the white man, and of the dreadful moral 
darkness which overspreads the land.* 

Catliolic missionaries labored tor two hundred and forty-one years, 
but every vestige of their influence has been gone for many genera- 
tions, 'i'he Moravians, beginning in 1730, toiled for thirty-four 
years, making five attempts, at a cost of eleven lives, and efl'ccted 
nothing. An English attempt, at Biflama Island, in 1702, partly 
missicniary in its character, was abandoned in two years, with a loss 
of one hundred lives. A mission sent to the Foulahs, from England, 
in 1795, returned without commencing its labors. The London, 

* We have drawn our facts mostly from Mr. Tracy's history of Colonization and 
Missions. 



38 JnJIucncc of Colonization on Missionary Efforts. 

Ed'mhunrh and Glasjrow society, commenced three stations in 1797, 
which were extinct in tliree years, and live of tlie six missionaries 
dead. The Church missionary society sent out its first missionaries 
in 1804, but it was four years before they could find a place out of 
the colony of Sierra Leone, where tlicy could commence their 
labors. They established and attempted to maintain ten stations. 
IJul tiie hostility of the natives, who preferred the slave traders to 
them, drove the missionaries from nine of them, and forced them to 
take refuge in Sierra Leone, the only place where they could labor 
with safety and wMlh hope. The tenth station at Goree, was also 
abandoned and given up to the French. 

"Here, then, without counting Sierra Leone and Goree, are eigh- 
teen Protestant missionary attempts, before the settlement of Liberia, 
all of which failed from the influence of climate, and the hostility of 
the natives, generated by the opposition of the slave traders." And, 
since the seldement of Liberia, until 1845, when these investiga- 
tions were completed, all attempts to sustain missions beyond the 
infiuence of the Colony have also failed. 

'• Hut while we mourn over these failures in attempts to do good to 
Africa, it is a source of the most profound gratitude to have tlie facts 
placed authentically before the world, that every attempt at coloniz 
ing Africa ivith colored persons, and every missionary effort con- 
nected with the Colonics, either of England or America, iiave been 
successful." 

These facts prove, conclusively, that while other lands may be 
approached and blessed by other methods, the only hope for Africa 
ap[)ears to be in Colonization by persons of color. This is the only 
star of promise which kindles its light on her dark horizon. It is 
the only apparent means of her salvation. 

"After the presentation of such an array of facts, extending over a 
period of four centuries, may w^e not claim that the question is 
decided — that the facts of the case preclude all possilnlity of reason- 
able doul)l — that the combined action of Colonization and missions 
is proved to be an effectual means, and is the only known means, 
of converting and cirilizins; .Africa.'' 

And who liiat believes this, will not give heart and hand to the 
work, and labor, through good report and throuoh ill, for the con- 
centration of all the talent and piety, belimging to liic colored people, 
upon that coast? AVho that truly desires the redemption of the 
Alricnn race from their degradation of accumulated centuries, but 
WDuld rejoice to see hundreds and thousands, and tens of thousands, 
of the virtuous and intelligent of our colored population, like so many 
angels of mercy, flocking to Africa, and eiiij)loyed in that labor of 
love which must be performed before Ethiopia can strelcli out her 
liands to God ? 

After what has been said, in relation to the low state of morals 
amongst the slaves, and the new accessions of colored emigrants 
wiiich we arc likely to receive from Ujc slave states, it is proper, in 
this place, that we should present some explanation. Our observa- 



Influence of CoJonizat'wn on Missionary Efforts. oD 

lions, it will be noticod, were based upon the representations made 
by our norihern friends on the degrading and brutil'ying tendencies 
of slavery, and were offered, partly, as a retort upon them for wish- 
ing to overstock us with such a population as they must necessarily 
believe will emanate from the midst of slaveiy, while they them- 
selves scarcely touch the burthen with the tip of the finger. Our 
views, however, difler materially from theirs, in relation to the 
moral condition of die slaves. 

While we believe that slavery, like despotism in any other form, 
in itself considered, contains no one principle which tends to elevate 
and improve the intellect and the heart, yet we know that there are 
accidents connected with it, in diis country, as there have been with 
despotism in Europe, which afford to its victims the means of 
improvement. We believe that the Providence of God never places 
men, towards whom he has designs of mercy, in circumstances 
where the gospel of Christ is not adapted to their condition. That 
gospel, we know, has spoken peace to thousands of poor slaves, 
and whispered to their desponding hearts the hope of freedom in 
heaven. It is undeniable, that an immense degree of intellectual and 
moral advancement, beyond that of the native of Africa, has been made 
by the slaves of the TJnited States, under all the disadvantages to 
which they have been subjected. It is true, that thousands of 
masters are laboring with much success for the moral and religious 
improvement of their slaves. It is well known, that the moral 
character and religious principle of many a slave will compare with 
and excel that of many of the whites, even in the north. It is 
certain, that the voluntary emancipations which occur, are by this 
class of masters and from this class of slaves. And it is a fact, that 
the greater number of the newly emancipated slaves, who come to 
the free states, have more or less acquaintance with their social, 
moral, and religious duties, and are more or less disposed to make 
further efforts for their own advancement. And knowing and be- 
lieving all this, we are prepared to take them by the hand and to 
encourage them to the full extent of the numbers that we are able to 
receive. We are also prepared to cooperate with, and do aid them, 
in their efforts at education. In the village in which your speaker 
resides, a Presbytery of the church with which he is connected, 
pays, regularly, from a donation by a deceased member, the half of 
the salary of a teacher for a colored school. From observation 
there, and elsewhere, we have learned that though but a small portif)n 
of the parents have a right appreciation of the importance of edurn- 
tion and of the arduousness of the task of acquiring knowledge, yet, 
upon the whole, they manifest fully as much interest in the work 
as the same number of whites would do, who possess no higher a 
standard of intellectual attainment. 

W^ere it in our power, therefore, to increase the facilities for their 
education a thousand fold, we would do it at once. Because we 
feel it to be an imperative duty resting on the white men of 
the United States, allowing of no halfway measures or eflbris, 



40 Relations of England to Liberia. 

to labor for llic redemption of Africa, and to repair the wrongs 
that have been done her. 

But to execute this task, we must call to our aid men of African 
blood. We should have one teacher or missionary for every 1000 
iuliahilants. To supply the whole 80,000,000 of people of color in 
Africa, with teachers and missionaries, will, therefore, require an 
educated army of 80,000 colored men, who must be supplied from 
the United States and from Liberia. "Wiiile, then, we struggle to 
elevate and improve the colored man in the United Slates, we point 
him to Africa as the field of usefulness in which we wish to see 
him labor. 

VI. The certainty of success of the Colonization scheme, and 
of the perpetuity of the Republic of Liberia. 

In the facts which have been already presented, in the course of 
our investigations, many reasons will be found to encourage our 
hopes that the colonization scheme must continue to prosper, and 
that the experiment of an African Republic must succeed. AV'e shall 
now proceed to ofl'er additional facts and considerations of much more 
weight and importance on this point, than any whicli we have, yet, 
produced. 'I'he first and more important is based upon the coin- 
mcrciul advantages, in Africa, which Liberia is beginning to unfuld 
to civilized nations. But as time will not allow us to enter upon an 
extended investigation of the peculiar advantages which each nation 
will derive from the civilization of Africa, we shall confine ourselves 
to those of England, because she is more vitally interested in the 
success of Liberia than all the others. AVhcn the facts in her case 
are known, it will be easy to make the application to other nations. 
It will be seen, in the course of these investigations, that it is of the 
utmost importance to England to aid the Republic of Liberia in 
extending its infiuencc with all possible rapidity over the continent 
of Africa. The reasons upon which we base this opinion are briclly 
as follows : 

Next to the necessity under which the government of Great 
Britain i.s laid to create new markets for her manufactures, comes 
the vast importance which she attaches to having the control of 
tropical poHncssions and tropical productions. Their importance to 
lier heretofore, in contributing to give to her the ascendency which .she 
accjuired amongst nations, was thus strongly stated by INIcQueen, in 
1814, when tiiis highly intelligent Englishman was urging upon his 
' (government the great necessity which existed for securing to itself 
the coiitrDl of tlic labor and the products of tropical Jlfiica. 

" During the fearfid struggle of a quarter of a century, lor her 
existence as a naUon, against the power and resources of Europe, 
directed by the most intelligent I)ut remorseless military and)ition 
jigainst her, the command of the productions of the torrid zone, and 
the advantageous commerce which that afibrded, gave lo Great 
Britain llie power and the resources which cnahled her to meet, to 
combat, and to overcome, her numerous and reckless enemies in 



Relations of England to Liberia. 



41 



every battle-fieid, whether by sea or by land, throughout the world. 
In iier the world saw. realized the fabled giant of antiquity. With 
her hundred hands she grasped her foes in every region under 
heaven, and crushed them with resisdess energy." 

If the possession and control of tropical products gave to Eng- 
land such immense resources, and secured to her such superiority 
and such power, then, to be deprived of these resources would of 
course exert a corresponding opposite effect, and she would not 
yield them to another but in a death-struggle for their maintainance. 
JNow, we expect to prove that this struggle has commenced and 
progressed to a point of the utmost interest, both to England and to 
the cause of humanity; and that the present moment finds Great 
Britain in a position so disadvantageous, arising from the progress of 
other nations in tropical cultivation, that one principal means of her 
extrication is in the success of Liberia. 

Mr. McQueen, in proceeding further with his investigations, 
reveals to us the true position of England by the following starding 
announcement: 

"The increased cultivation and prosperity of foreign tropical pos- 
sessions is become so great, and is advancing so rapidly the power 
and resources of other nations, that these are embarrassing this 
country (England,) in all her commercial relations, in her pecuniary 
resources, and in all her political relations and negotiations." 

The peculiar force of these remarks, and the cause for alarm 
which existed, will be belter understood by an examination of thu 
figures in the following table. They contrast the condition of Great 
Britain as compared with only a ^ew other countries, in the produc- 
tion of three articles, alone, of tropical produce. 



Sugar — 1842. 
British possessions. 



Foreian countries. 



West Lidies, 
East Indies, 
Mauritius, (1 


cwt 

841) ' 
Total 


?. 2,508,552 
' 940,452 
' 544,707 


Cuba, 
Brazil, 
Java, 
Louisiana, 


cwts. 5,800.000 
" 2,400,000 
" 1,105,757 




3,993,771 


" 1,400.000 
Tora. 10,705,757 






CoFrEE- 


—1842. 




West Indies, 
East Indies, 


lbs. 

a 

Total 


9,180,555 
18,206,448 
27,393,003 


Java, 
Brazils, 
Cuba, 
Venezuela, 


lbs. 134,842,715 

" 135,000,800 

33,589,325 

" 34,000,000 






Cotton 


—1840. 


Total 337,432,840 


West Indies 
East Indies. 
To China, frc 


lbs. 

)m do." 
Total 


427,529 

77,01.5,917 
60,000,000 

137,443,446 


United State 

Java, 

Brazil, 


3, lbs. 790.479,275 
" 165,504,800 

" 25,222,828 




Total 981,206,903 



42 Relations of England to Liberia. 

But that this exhibit may convey its full force to the minil, it 
must be observed, that nearly thrcc-fourtlis of this slave-groivn pro- 
duce, has been created, says McQueen, within thirty years prece- 
ding the date of his writino;. (1844.) 

It will be noticed, also, that the whole of these products, wiUi the 
exception of Uiose of Java and Venezuela, are tlie produce of skive 
labor ; and it must be remembered, also, that the perpelualion and 
increase of this labor is, in a great degree, except in Louisiana, 
depending upon the slave trade for it>i continuance. It is easy, 
then, to perceive, from the foregoing facts, that the slave trade has 
been very sensibly and very seriously afl'ecting the interests of the 
British government — that it has been an engine in the hands of other 
nations, by wliich they have thrown I'^ngland into the l)ack ground 
in the production of those articles of whicli slie formerly had the 
monopoly, and which had given to her such power — and tliat (ireat 
Britain must either crush the slave trade, or it icill continue to 
paralyze her. 

Here is the true secret of her movements in reference to the slave 
trade and slavery. Public sentiment, imrfer the control of Chris- 
tian principle, compelled her in 1808, to a first step in tliis great 
work of philanthropy ; and this step, once taken, there could be no 
retreat. But this first step, the abolition of the slave trade in her 
colonies, gave to Spain and Portugal all the advantages of tlint 
trallic, and the cheaper and more abundant labor, thus secured, gave 
a powerful stimulus to the production of tropical commodities in 
their colonies of Cuba and Brazil, and soon enabled them to rival, 
and gready surpass England, in the amount of her exports of thcst; 
articles. 

But the investigations which had led to the knowledge of the 
enormities of the slave trade, necessarily exhibited the evils of 
slavery itself. Public opinion decreed the annihilation of l)ol]i, anil 
the British government had no other alternative but to comply. The 
means to winch she resorted for the suppression of the slave trade, 
and their failure hitherto, liavc been already noticed. 'J'lie measuies 
adopted for the emancipation of her West India slaves, have resulted 
still more unfavorably to her interests than those for the extinction 
of the slave trade. 

It was considered absolutely necessary to the prosperity of Eng- 
land, that she should regain the advantageous position which she 
had occupied in being the chief producer of tropical commodities. 
But to eflecl this, it was necessary that she sliould be able to double 
the exports from her own Islands, and greatly diminish tliose of her 
rivals. This could be accomplished, only, by an increase ol 
l:il)orers froui abroad, or by stimulating those on the Islands to 
double activity in iheir work. An increase of laliorers from aliroad 
could only be .secured by a resort to the slave trade, which was 
impos.sible ; or to voluntary emigration from otiier countries to the 
Islands, which was improbable. The only nMuaining alicrnalive 
was to render the labor already in the Islands more productive. 



Relalions of England to Liberia. 



43 



This could not be done by ibe ivhip, as- it had already expended its 
force, and could not aObrd the relief demanded. This position of 
a Hairs made the government willing to listen to the appeals of the 
iricnds of West India emancipation. They had long argued that 
free labor was cheaper than slave lal)or — that 07ie freeman, under 
the sthmdus of wages, tvoidd do twice the work of a slave com- 
pelled to industry by the ivhip — that the government, by immediate 
emancipation, could demonstrate the truth of this proposition, and 
tluis furnish a powerful argument against slavery — tluit the world 
should be convinced that the employment of slave labor is a great 
economic error — and that this truth, once believed, the abolition of 
slavery would every where take place, and the demand for slaves 
being thus destroyed, the slave trade must cease. Parliament, yield- 
ing to these arguments, passed her West India Emancipation act, 
1833, with certain restrictions, by which the liberated slaves were to 
be held by their old masters as apprentices, partly until Aug. 1, 
1838, and partly until Aug. 1, 1840. This apprenticeship system, 
however, being productive of greater cruellies than even slavery, the 
Legislative councils of the Islands, coerced by j)ublic sentiment in 
England, were forced to precipitate the final emancipation of the 
slaves, and on Aug. 1, 1838, they were declared free. This act at 
once brought on the crisis in the experiment. The results are 
stated in the following official table, taken from the Westminster 
Ileview, 1844. 



Exported from 



St. Vincent, 

Trinidad, 

Jamaica, 

Total W. Indies 



Avera2;e oi 

1831-2-3. 

3 yrs. of Slaveiy. 



23,400.000 lbs. 

18,923 tons. 

86,080 hhd. 

3,841,1.53 cvvt. 



Average of 
1835-6-7. 
3 yrs. of Apprent'ship. 



22,.'b00,000 lbs. 

18,255 tons. 

62,960 hhd. 

3,477,-592 cwt. 



Average of 

1839-10-41. 

3 yrs. of Freedom. 



14,100 000 U.S. 

14,828 tons. 

34,415 hhd. 

2,396,784cwt. 



This immense and unexpected reduction of West India products 
under the system of freedom, was cause of great alarm. The 
experitnent which was to prove the superiority of jree labor over 
that of slave labor had failed. The hope of doidding the exports by 
that means was blasted. $500,000,000* of British capital, invested 
in the Islands, says McQueen, was on the brink of destruction for 
want of laborers to make it available. The English government 
found her commerce greatly lessened, and her home supply of tro- 
j^ical products falling below the actual wants of her own people. 
This diminution rendered lier unable to furnish any surplus lor the 
markets of those of her colonies and other countries which she 
formerly supplied. These results at once extended the market for 
slave grown products, and gave a new impulse to the slave trade. 

The government and its advisers now found themselves in the 
mortifying position of having blundered miserably in their emancipa- 
tion scjieme, and of having landed themselves in a dilemma of singu- 

* V\'c reckon the pound sterling, here and cisewlicre, for convenience, at live 
dollars. 



44 Relations of England to Liberia. 

lar pprplexitv. Had England induced, or cnnipelleu Portiipfal, Spain, 
and Br.izil, — the latter then no longer a colony hut an independent 
nation, — to fuhill the conditions of the treaty declaring the slave trade 
piracy, and also to abolish slavery, she might l)ave succeeded in her 
object. But she did not await the accomplishment of this work 
before she declared the freedom of her own slaves. 'I'his act 
resulted so favorablv to the interests of those countries employing 
slave labor, by enlarging the markets for slave grown products, that 
the difliculty of inducing them to cease from it, was increased a 
hundred iold. Nor did the expedients to which she resorted prove 
successful in extricating her from the difficulties in which site was 
involved. A duty of near 39 shillings, afterwards raised to 41 
shillings the cwt., or 4.1 pence the pound, levied on slave grown 
sugar — designed to prohibit its importation into England and secure 
the monopoly to the West India planter, thereby enabling him to 
pay higher wages for labor — while it failed to stimulate the activities 
of the freedmen sufliciently to increase the exports to their former 
amount — resulted only in taxing the English people, by the increase 
of prices consequent upon a diminution of the supply, in a single 
year, says Porter in his Progress of Nations, to the enormous amount 
of $25,000,000 more than the inhabitants of other countries paid for 
the same quantity of sugar. 'J'his enormous tax accrued during 
1840, from die protective duty, but was gready above that of any 
other year during its continuance. The whole amount of tlie bounty 
to the planter, thus drawn from the pockets of the English people 
and placed in those of the AVest India negro laborers in excessive 
hi<ih wages, in the course of six or seven years, says McQueen, 
1844, amounted to $50,000,000. 

Tiie crisis had become so imminent, that enerjjetic measures were 
immediately adopted to guard against the impendinsj danger. Eng- 
land must either regain her advantages in tropical countries and 
tropical products, or she must be sliorn of a part of her power and 
greatness. This truth was so fully impressed upon the minds of 
lier intelhgent statesmen, that one of the best informed on this sub- 
ject, (McQueen,) declared, that 

" If the foreign slave trade be not extinguished, and the cultiva- 
tion of the tropical territories of oilier powers opposed and checked 
by British tropical cultivation, then the interests and Uie power of 
such states will rise into a preponderance over those of Great 
Britain ; and the power and the induence of the latter will cease to 
be felt, feared and respected, amongst the civilized and powerful 
nations of the world." 

'i'o rcdicvc the English people from the onerous tax of the sugar 
duties, and at the same time, in obedience to the dictates of pul)lic 
opinion, to continue the exclusion of slave grown products from the 
Enillish markets, sugar, the product of fr(c labor, it was decided, 
should be admitted at a duty of 10 shillings the cwt. But it was 
so(Mi discerned, that this policy woidd oidy create a circuitous 
conimercc, by which the slave grown sugar of Cuba and Brazil 



Relations of England to Liberia. 45 

would be taken by Holland and Spain, for their own consumption, 
and tiiat of Java and INlanilla sent to England ; thus creating a more 
extensive demand for slave grown products anf consequently for 
slave labor, and giving to the alave trade an additional impulse in 
an increased demand for slaves. 

The necessity for tliis continuous supply of slave laborers from 
Africa, for the planters of Cuba and Brazil, will beiietter understood, 
when the nature of West India and Brazilian slavery is made 
known. When England prohibited die slave trade in 1806, the 
nund)er of slaves in her colonies was 800,000. In twenty-three 
years afterwards, or near the time she emancipated them, they 
numbered but 700,000. The decrease in this period was, therefore, 
100,000; (Memoirs of Buxton). 

The United States, in 1800, had a slave population of 893,000. 
In 1830 slie numbered 2,009,000, being an increase of 1,116,000. 
Thus, in diirty years, the United States had an increase of one 
million one hundred and sixteen thousand on a population of 
893,000; while the West Indies, under the English system of 
elavery, with a slave population nearly equal to that of the United 
States, in a period only six years less, suffered an actual decrease 
of one hundred thousand. 

The destruction of human life m the slavery of Cuba and Brazil 
will, doubdess, be equal to what it was formerly in the West Indies, 
inasmuch as the same causes prevail — the great disparity of the 
sexes amongst those brought by slave traders, from Africa, for the 
planters. In the slave population of Cuba this disproportion, says 
McQueen, is 150,000 females to 275,000 males. It is estimated, 
that to keep up the slave population of Cuba and Brazil, will require, 
yearly, 130,000 people from Africa. It is, then, at once apparent, 
that Cuba and Brazil are dependent, as we have said, upon the 
slave trade for keeping up the supply of their laborers; and, that, 
if this annual importation of slaves should be stopped, then, their 
foreign exports would be proportionally lessened and their growing 
prosperity checked. 

Under these circumstances, there could be no doubt, that if Eng- 
land could suppress the slave trade, she would at once cut oif the 
supply of laborers furnished by that traffic to Cuba and Brazil, and 
" check " their ahiliti/ to rival her as producers of tropical corn- 
modifies; and, further, if she could increase the number of laborers 
in the TFest Indies sufficiently, she could restore those Islands to 
their former productiveness, and recover her former advantages. 
She, therefore, renewed her efl'orts for the suppression of the slave 
trade, with gready increased activity. She also commenced the 
transfer oi free laborers from the East Indies and from Africa to the 
West Indies. Every slave trading vessel captured, was made to 
yield up its burden of human beings to the West India planters, 
instead of to those of Cuba and Brazil ; thus securing to the 
ibrmer all die advantages of laborers which had been designed for 
the latter. This arrangement was adopted in 1842, and the only 



4G Relations of England to Liberia, 

exception to it was in relation to Spanish slavers, which were to be 
given up, wiih their cargoes of slaves, to the authorities of Cuba. 
A premium was paid to her naval oflicers and seamen for all the 
slaves thus captured and transported to her West India Colonies. 
The expenditure for this object, in 1844, says McQueen, had 
amounted to §4,700,000. 

In this movement an intelligent colored man, Mr. AViixiam 
Browx, of Oxford, Ohio, has remarked, that England seems to have 
copied the example of the en<rlc, which disdains to soil his own 
plumage by a plunse in the water, but, as he must have the fish or 
die, makes no scruple of robbing the more daring fish-hawk of its 
prey and appropriating the captive fish to his own use, instead of 
restoring it to its native element. 

All these eflbrts, however, failed in relieving England from her 
difiiculties. The slave trade continued to increase, and the slave 
grown productions to multiply. The number oi free labor era trans- 
ported as emigrants from Africa and the East Indies, or captured 
from the slave traders, and landed in the Islands, were so few, 
comparatively, as to make no sensible diilerence in the amount of 
West India productions, and the scheme, though still continued, lias 
failed of its main object — the increase of British JVest India pro- 
ductions. Some other means of replacing England in her former 
position, must, therefore, be devised. 

But let*is look a moment, before we proceed, at the West Indies, 
and learn more fully, the extent and nature of the influences which 
have g-one forth upon the wM)rld as the result of W^est India Eman- 
cipation and British policy and philanthropy. 

It seems to have been a great error of judgment in the British 
philanthropists, who urged West India Emancipation tipon the 
ground that free labor icould be more productive than slave labor, 
— that a freeman, under the stimulus of tcages, would do twice the 
labor of a slave toiling beneath the lash: because this proposition is 
true only in reference to men of intelligence and forethought, but is 
untrue wJien applied to an ignorant and degraded class of men. 
The ox under the yoke, or the mule in the harness, when spurred 
on by the goad or the whip, will do more labor than when turned 
out to shift for themselves. So it will l)e with any barbarous people, 
or with the mass of such a slave popidation as the West Indies tlien 
included; where but little more care had been taken of the greater 
portion of tliem than if they had been mere brute beasts, and not moral 
agents. If any higlicr estimate had been put upon them, than as mere 
inarhines to he used in the jiroduction of tropical commodities, then 
it had been impossible for their nnnil)ers to have been reduced one 
hundred thousand in so short a period as licfore stated. 

'I'he first imj)ulsc of the heart of tiie more intelligent slaves, when 
ihey awoke to a ccmsciousness of freedom, would prompt them to 
withdraw their wives, daughters, and younger children, from the 
sugar plantations, that the mothers miirht attend to their household 
duties, and the children be sent to school. This would deprive the 



Iiclations of England to Liberia. 47 

planters vof iniu'li of the labor upon which they had (U'|)eii(l('d. The 
men, too, would many of them prefer mechanical pursuits, or confine 
themselves to the cultivation of small portions of land, and- decline 
laboring for their old masters, in whose presence they must still 
have felt a sense of inferiority. Many, from sheer indolence and 
recklessness of consequences, would only labor when necessity com- 
pelled them to seek a supply of their wants. The marriaijes takinj^ 
place would withdraw still more of the laborers from the lields, and 
reduce the amount of the products of the Islands. 

Wliile, therefore, the ease, comfort, and welfare, of the colored 
man was secured, the interests of the planters were almost ruined by 
emancipation, and the inlluence and power of England put in 
jeopardy. Little did the 700,000 West India freedmen, who 
refused to labor regularly for the planters, think, when following 
their own inclinations, or lounging at their ease under the shade trees 
of tiiese sunny Islands, that their want of industry, their reluctance 
to go back to the sugar mills, for the wages offered, was crippling 
the power of one of the greatest empires on earth, and robbing Africa 
of 400,000 of her children, annually, to supply to the world, from 
Cuba and Brazil, those very commodities which they were refusing 
to produce. Yet such was the fact, and such the mysterious links 
connecting man with his fellow, that the want of aml)ition in the 
West India freedman to earn more than a subsistence, depriving the 
planters of the necessary free labor to keep up the usual amount of 
exports, created a corresponding demand for slave grown products, 
and robbed Africa, in each two years thereafter, of a number of men 
m'.n-c than eqiful to the ivhole of the slaves emancipated in the 
British Islands. 

There would seem, then, to have been but little gain to the cause 
of humanity by W^est India Emancipation, Tliis view of its results, 
however, would be very erroneous. On the contrary, there is 
exhibited here, in this result, another mysterious link in the chain of 
events connected with the redemption of Africa. The failure of the 
"West India experiment, has been a failure, only, of Engtand\s ex- 
p(riment adopted to restore herself to her former position and her 
former advantages, and will not retard the onward progress of the 
cause of humanity. It has, on the contrary, no doubt greatly tended 
to precipiiate upon the world the solution of a problem of the first 
importance in the great work of its recovery from barbarism. It 
must now be admitted that mere personal liberty, even connected 
tvith the stimulus of high wages, is insufficient to oocure the indus- 
try of an ignorant population. It is Intelligence, alone, that can be 
acted upon by such motives. Intelligence must precede voluntary 
Industry. This proposition, we claim, has been fairly proved in 
the West India experiment. And, hereafter, that man or nation, 
may find it difficult to command respect or succeed in being esteemed 
wise, who will not, along with exertions to extend personal freedom 
to men, intimately blend with their efforts adequate means fer 
intellectual and moral improvement, The AVest India colore*! 



48 delations of England to Liberia. 

population, now released from the restraints of slavery, and accessihle 
to the missionaries and teachers, sent to them from English Cluis- 
tians, are rising in intelligence and respectability; and, tlius, West 
India emancipation has been productive of infinite advantage to diem, 
tlioiigh Ensi'hsh capitalists may have been ruined by the act. But 
we will oo further, and give it as our deliberate opinion, that as soon 
as intelhirence and morality, growing out of the religious training 
now enjoyed, shall sufliciently prevail, the amount of products raised 
in the West Indies will greatly exceed that yielded under the system 
of slavery. Liberty and Religion can make its inliabitants as pros- 
perous and happy as those of any other spot on eartli. We do not 
sav, however, that tliis can take place while they sustain the posi- 
tion of vassals of the British crown, and their importance in the scale 
of being continues to be estimated according to the extent to whirii 
they can add to its prosperity and its glory. 

Had the West India colored men, under the stimulus of freedom 
and high wages, each performed twice the labor of a slave, as they, 
no doubt, miglit have done, and as was confidently anticipated by the 
ep.tlmsias'ic friends of emancipation, more than twice the products 
of former years would have been exported from the Islands, and 
Eiiilland, in that event, restored to her former position, and looking 
only to self aggrandizement, would have remained content, and con- 
tinued to emplov men as mere machines, as she heretofore had done, 
nor cared for their intellectual and moral elevation. But the failure 
of Eniiland in the West Indies, forced her to renewed efforts /"or fhe 
acf/uisifirm of a Idilional. tropical ponsensions, where, with better 
prospects of success, she could bring free labor into compelidun 
with slave labor. 

Before tracing the movements of Great Britain, however, in her 
prosecution of this enterprise, let us again look a moment at licr 
position. "Instead of supplying her own wants with tropical pro- 
ductions, and next nearly all Europe, as she formerly did, she had 
scarcely enough, says McQueen, 1814, of some of the most impor- 
tant articles, for her own consumption, while her colonies were 
mostly supplied with foreign slave produce." "In the mean time 
tiopiral productions had been increased from $75,000,000 to $300 - 
000,000 annually. The Enalish capital invested in tropical pro- 
ductions in the East and West Indies, had been, by emancipalion in 
the latter, reduced from ST.IO, 000,000 to $()50,000.000 ; while, since 
1 BOB, on the part of foreign nations $ 1,000,000,000 of fixed capital 
had iieen creat(!d in slaves and in cultivation wholly dependent upon 
the labor of slaves." 'The odds, therefore, in agricullural and com- 
mercial capital and interest, and consequently in j)olitical power and 
inlluence, arrayed against the British tropical possessions, were very 
fearful — six to ONi:.' 

This, then, was llie position of England from 1810 to 1844, anil 
these the forces marshalled against her, and which she must meet and 
coudial. In all her movements hitherto, she had only added to the 
Blrenglh of lier rivals. Her first step, the suppression of the slave 



Relations of England to Liberia. 49 

trade, had diminished her West India laborers 100,000 in twenty- 
tliree years, and reduced her means of production to that extent, 
giving all the benefits, arising from this and from the slave trade, to 
rival nations, who have but too well improved their advantages. But, 
besides her commercial sacrifices, she had expended $100,000,000 
to remunerate the planters for the slaves emancipated, and another 
^100,000,000 for an armed repression of the slave trade. And yet, 
in all this enormous expenditure, resulting only in loss to England, 
Afiica had received no advantage whatever, but, on the contrary, she 
had been robbed, since 1808, of at least, 3,500,000 slaves, (McQueen) 
who had been exported to Cuba and Brazil from her coast, making 
a total loss to Africa, by the rule of Buxton, of 11,660,000 human 
beings, or one million more than the whole white population of the 
United States in 1830, and more than three times the number of our 
present slave population. 

Now, it was abundantly evident, that Great Britain was impelled 
by an overpowering necessity, by the instinct oi self-preservation, to 
attempt the suppression of the slave trade. It was true, no doubt, 
that considerations of justice and humanity were among the motives 
which influenced her actions. Interest and duty \vere, therefore, 
combined to stimulate her to exertion. The measures to be adopted 
to secure success, were also becoming more apparent. Few other 
nations are guided by statesmen more quick to perceive the best 
course to adopt in an emergency, and none more readily abandon a 
scheme as soon as it proves impracticable. Great Britain stood 
pledged to her own citizens and to the world for the suppression of 
the slave trade. She stood equally pledged to demonstrate, that free 
labor can be made more productive than slave labor, even in the 
cultivation of tropical commodities. These pledges she could not 
deviate from nor revoke. Her interests as well as her honor were 
deeply involved in their fulfillment. But she could only demonstrate 
the greater productiveness of free labor over slave labor, by opposing 
the one to the other, in tlieir practical operations on a scale coexten- 
sive with each other. She must produce tropical commodities so 
cheaply and so abundantly, by free labor, that she could undersell 
slave-grown products to such an extent, and glut tlic markets of the 
world with them so fully, as to render it unprofitable any longer to 
employ slaves in tropical cultivation. Such an enterprise, success- 
fully carried out, would be a death blow to slavery and the slave 
trade. " But," says McQueen, " there remained no portion of the 
tropical world, where labor could be had on the spot, and whereon 
Great Britain could conveniendy and safely plant her foot, in order to 
accomplish this desirable object — extensive tropical cultivation — hut 
in tropical Africa. Every other part was occupied by independent 
nations, or by people that might and would soon become independent." 
Africa, therefore, was the field upon which Great Britain w^as compelled 
to enter and to make her second grand experiment. Her citizens 
were becoming convinced that it was unwise, if not unjust, to abstract 
laborers, even as free emigrants, from Africa, to be employed in other 



50 Rdalions of England to I/iberia. 

pirts of llie world, whrn their labor might be cmphi/ed to vvich 
better advantage in Africit itself. The government coulJ, thercl'ore, 
safely resort to some moditicalion of her former policy. 'J'o confine 
lier elforts for the recovery of her prosperity, within the limits of her 
own tropical possessions, xcould be to abandon the vast regions of 
tropical Africa to other na'ions, and thus permit them, by takini^ 
possession of it, to redouble the advantajres over her which tlioy 
already possessed. By employing tlie labor o/" Africa within Africa, 
she would cut ofl' the supply of laborers derived by other nations 
from the slave trade, and would have an advantage over them, not 
only of the capital expended in the transportation of slaves frotn 
Africa, but she would have a gain of seven-tenths in the saving of 
Imman life now destroyed by the slave trade. British capital, 
instead of being directly and indirectly employed in the slave trade, 
as has been fully shown by the Hon. II. A. Wise, late American 
minister to Brazil, could be more honorably and safely invested in 
the cultivation of the richer fields of tropical Africa itself. 

In her West India experiment, however, England had been taught 
the all-important lesson, that intelligence must precede voluntary 
industry. Her Niger expedition of 1842, already noticed, was 
based upon this principle, and hence the extensive preparations 
connected with that movement, for the improvement of the intelligence 
and morals and industry of the natives. But the terrible mortality 
which destroyed that enterprise taught her another lesson, that ichite 
men cannot falfill the agency of Africans intellectual elevation. 
iSince that period, Enjiland has been mostly occupied with the settle- 
ment of her difficulties witli China, and her war with the Sikhs of 
India, and she has made but little progress in her African ali'airs; 
excepting by explorations into the interior and negocialions with the 
powers interested in the slave trade. 

In the meantime the colony of Liberia had born pursuing its quiet 
and unostentatious course, and working out the problem ol" tiie colored 
man's capability for self-government. Tiie active industry of that 
handful of men, had created a commerce of nuich importance, and 
supplied exports to the value of iplOOiOOO annually. Its declaration 
of independence was published to the world at a period the most 
auspicious. France, under those generous impulses so characteristic 
of her people, had herself trampled the last relics of despotism in the 
dust, and (leclarcd the Republic. Great as she herself is, she did not 
despise the little African republic, but, extending her view down the 
stream of lime, discerned in it the germ of future empire and greatness, 
and therefore, she welcomed it into the fantily of nations. But lest, 
in its feel)lencss, it should receive a wound to its honor, or an injury 
to it.s commerce, from an attack of the dealers in human ficsh infesting 
its borders, with (listiii<:ui.shed liberality she olfcrod the use of her 
war vessels for their destruction. 

Kngland, too, found herself in a position inclining her to favor the 
young republic; nay, not only inclinin'j^ but imposing upon her the 
necessity of promoting its welfare. Impelled by her own interests 



Ilelaiions of England to Liberia. 51 

and Avnnls, to secure extensive tropical cultivation, by free labor, in 
.Africa, she had been surveyin<T the whole vast tick! of that continent, 
the only country now remaining where her grand experiment could 
be commenced, and found nnich of it already occupied. France, fully 
alive to the importance of the commerce witii Africa, had, within a 
short period, securely placed herself at the mouth of the Senegal and 
at Goree, extending her influence eastward and southeastward from 
both places. She had a settlement at Albreda, on the Gambia, a short 
distance above St. Mary's, and which commands that river. She had 
formed a settlement at the mouth of the Gaboon, and another near 
the chief mouth of the Niger. She had fixed herself at Massuah 
and Bure, on the west shore of the Red Sea, commanding the inlets 
into Abyssinia. She had endeavored to fix her flag at Brava and tlie 
mouth of the Jub, and had taken permanent possession of the im- 
portant island of Johanna, situated in the center of the northern outlet 
of the Mozambique channel, by which she acquired its command. 
Her active agents were placed in southern Abyssinia, and employed 
in traversing the borders of the Great White Nile; wliile Algiers on 
the northern shores of Africa, must speedily be her own. Spain had 
planted herself, since the Niger expedition, in the island of Fernando 
Po, which commands all the outlets of the Niger and the rivers, from 
Cameroons to the equator. Portugal witnessing these movemenls, 
h.ad taken measures to revive her once fine and still important colon- 
ics in tropical Africa. They included 17° of latitude on the east 
coast, from the tropic of Capricorn to Zanzibar, and nearly 19"^ on the 
west coast, from the 20th° south latitude, northward to cape Lopez. 
The Imaum of Muscat claimed the sovereignty on the east coast, from 
Zanzibar to Babelmandel, with the exception of the station of the 
French at Brava. From the Senegal northward to Algeria was in the 
possession of the independent Moorish princes. Tunis, Tripoli, and 
Egypt were north of the tropic of Cancer, and independent tributaries 
of Turkey. 

Here, then, all the eastern and northern coasts of Africa, and also 
the west coast from the Gambia north wauls, was found to be in the 
actual possession of independent sovereignties, who, of course, 
would not yield the right to England. Southern Africa, below the 
tropic of Capricorn, already belonging to England, though only the 
same distance south of the equator that Cuba and Florida are north 
of it, is highly elevated above the sea-level, and not adapted to tropical 
productions. The claims of Portugal on the west coast, before 
noticed, extending from near the British south African line to Cape 
Lopez, excluded England from that district. From Cape Lopez 
to the mouth of the Niger, including the Gaboon and Fernando 
Po, as before stated, was under the control of the French and 
Spanish. 

The only territory, therefore, not claimed by civilized countries, 
which could be made available to England for her great scheme of 
tropical cuUivation, was that between the Niger and Liberia, embra- 
cing nearly fourteen degrees of longitude. But this territory includes 



52 Rdutions of England to Liberia. 

the powerful Uiiiiriloni of Dahomey and that of Aslmnlee, whoso 
riglit to tlie sovoreiirnty of the soil could not, probably, be |)urchascd, 
as was that of the former petty kings on the line of coast occui)it'd 
by Liberia. Their territory, liowever, and that of Liberia, together 
with tlie whole of the vast basin of tlie Psiger, under the hand of 
industry could be made to teem with those productions, the command 
of which were of such essential importance to Englunii. But bt)th 
Dahomey and Ashanlee w^ere engaged in the slave trade, and, Hke 
other parts of the continent, nine-tenths of the population held as 
slaves, — (Dr. Goheen.) This territory, therefore, could not be 
made available to England until she could succeed in securing the 
discontinuance of their connection with the slave trade and the abohtion 
of their system of slavery; and not even then, as we have before proved, 
until intelligence should be introduced and diffused and indiistri/hvgoi- 
ten — a ivork of generations. But negotiations in relation to tliese ob- 
jects had been conmieiiced, says M'Queen, in 1814, under favoral)le 
auspices, and the king of Dahomey had agreed to abolish the slave 
trade, and had favorably received some Wesleyan missionaries. 
England has, since that period, successfully exerted her influence in 
other quarters for its suppression. In the British House of Com- 
mons, lately, Lord Palmerston announced, that the Bey of Tunis had 
abaniloned within his dominions, not merely the slave trade but slav- 
ery itself — that the Sultan of Turkey had prohibited the slave trade 
among his subjects in the eastern seas — that the Imaum of Muscat 
had abolished it within certain latitudes — that the Arabian Chiefs in 
the Persian Gulf have also abandoned it — and that the Shah of Persia 
has prohibited it throughout his dominions. Thus, then, though the 
system of an armed repression of the slave trade lias entirely failed, 
as before shown, yet the hope is springing up that it may soon be so 
circumscribed that its extermination can be more easily effected by 
encircling the remaining parts of the coast with Christian colonies 
But all tliese movements, important as they are to the cause of 
humanity, do not, in the least, check the slave trade with Cuba and 
Brazil, and the reason seems to be this: the slave trade is not a 
business by itself, and the slave traders are not a distinct class of men. 
The trade is so mixed up with the general business of the world, 
that it can derive facilities from the most innocent commercial trans- 
actions. In Brazil it is neither unlawful nor disreputable, and, it is said 
that nobody abstains from it, or from dealing with those concerned in 
it, from any fear of law, scruples of conscience, or regard of charac- 
ter ; and that to trade with Brazil at all is to deal with a slave trader, 
or with some one who deals freely with slave traders. Hence, Eng- 
lish capitalists in loaning money in Brazil, or English manufacturers 
in filling orders for goods from Brazil, are furnishing facilities for the 
slave traders to prosecute their infamous pursuits. The ship-builders 
of the United States, in selling fast-sailing merchant vessels to Brazil- 
ians, are furnishing to slave traders the means for transporting slaves 
from Africa. 'J'lius British capital and industry and American skill, 
though, to the superficial observer, employed in a lawful way, are 



Relations of England to Liberia. 53 

indirectly furnisliinff the means for the prosecution of the slave trade, 
and affordino; facilities to those engaged directly in it, wliich, if with- 
drawn, would greatly embarrass their operations, and make it much 
less dillicult to suppress it. Nor has the success of England, in 
securing the above named acts for the suppression of the slave trade, 
accomplished anything in her gxe^ii \\0):\i oi extensive tropical free 
labor cultivation in Jifrica, as the means upon which she relies to 
recover her former position, and to break down the prosperity of her 
rivals. 

In Sierra Leone, the commercial affairs being in the hands of white 
men, has prevented that advancement in industry, and in the know- 
ledge of business among the colored population, which must exist 
before habits of active industry will be adopted by them. But in 
Liberia all the business is in the hands of colored men, and some of 
them have accumulated fortunes. Their success has encouraged 
others to follow their example, and industry is beginning to prevail. 
The great work of tropical cultivalion by free labor has been success- 
fully commenced by the Freemen of Liberia. Tropical products 
have been exported in small quantities, from the colony to England. 
Its coffee was found to be superior to that of all other countries, except 
Mocha, and about equal to it. The coffee tree, in Liberia, produces 
double the quantity, annually, which that of the West Indies bears. 
Its cotton, a native of its forests, is of a superior quality. Its capacity 
for producing sugar has been tested, and found equal to any other 
country. Capital and labor only are required to make Liberia more 
than rival Louisiana, because frosts never touch its crops, and labor- 
ers will not be thrown idle in the former, from that cause, as they are 
in the latter. Such is the nature of the soil and climate of Liberia, and 
such the easy cultivation of the products used for food, that the labor 
of a man, one third of his time, will supply him with necessary sub- 
sistence, leaving him the remaining two-thirds for mental improvement 
and to cuUivate articles for export. An industrious man in Liberia 
must, therefore, become rich, and able to indulge his taste for the 
elegancies of life, leading him to the purchase of foreign commodities. 
Liberia, therefore, ofiered to England a field in which she could at 
once commence her experiment. All that is needed in Liberia to 
develop its resources, and to give it the ascendancy over all other 
portions of the tropical world, is ccfpifal and labor. The first can be 
abundantly supplied by England ; tlie second by tlie United States and 
Africa. But African labor, beyond the limits of the colony where 
intelligence prevails, cannot be made productive until the education of 
the natives has been undertaken. This work, if extended very rapid- 
ly, must be performed, in a good degree, by emigrant teachers and 
missionaries from the United States. Hence the wisdom of the policy 
of England in now favoring our colony. We can supply teachers to 
aid in civilizing Africa. Great Britain cannot, and, disconnected from 
our colony, she cannot create intelligence and industry, and there- 
f )re, cannot, at present, commence her scheme of extensive tropical 
cultivation wilhout the aid of Liberia. 



54 lielations of England to Libena. 

Here, now, wc claim, is tliesciliition of the question of England's pres- 
ent liberality toward Liberia. Her own interests and purposes, demand 
an early demonstration of the practicability of employing free labor 
in opposition to slave labor, on an extensive scale, in tropical Africa. 
Her own African colonies have been, says McQueen, very injudicious- 
ly selected for extending an influence into Africa. But the position of 
Lii)eria is much more favorable, and will enable her, perhaps, from 
the head of the St. Pauls, to reach across the Kong mountains, and 
grasp the tributaries of the upper Niger, and, connecting the two 
rivers by rail-road, secure the commerce of the interior to the capit;il 
of the Republic, as the cities of New York and Philadelphia have 
secured that of the Mississippi valley. 

England, therefore, at the moment that President Roberts visited 
London, found herself in a position compelling her to a change of 
policy toward our colony. Liberia at that moment, icas the only 
tvrrilory under heaven, where could be commenced, innnedicilely, 
her darling scheme of extensive tropiccd cidtivctlion by free labor. 
And Liberia oidy, of all the territory that might be made availal)!c, 
contained the elements of success, — intelligence and industry. 
Here was England's position and here Liberia's. The old Empire, 
shaken by powerful rivals, and driven to extremity, was seeking a 
prop of sullicient strength to support her. The young Republic in 
the feebleness of infancy was needing a protector. That secret, 
unseen, hidden, invincible, and all-controlling Power, which had 
impelled England onward in her giant efl'orts to extirpate the slave 
trade and to abolish slavery, and which had inspired the hearts of 
American Christians to restore the colored man to Africa, and had 
watched over and protected the feeble colony until it could assume a 
national position; that Providence which had made England's crimes 
of former years, to react upon and eiuliarrnss her in all her relations, 
had now brought, face to face, the; Prime Minister ol England and the 
President of the Republic of Liberia. The first, was the representative 
oi" that once unscrui)ulous but powerful iiovernmeiit, whose participa- 
tion in the slave trade, to build up an extensive commerce and to ag- 
grandize herself, had doomed the children of Africa to perpetual b(uul- 
age; but who was now, as a consequence of that very slave trade, 
compillcd to the most powerful exertions for its suppression, to save 
herself from commercial embarrassment and national decline: the se- 
cond, was the ICxecutive of a new Nation — himself a descendant of 
one of the victims of the English slave traders — seeking the udmis- 
sinn of an African REi'unLic into the family of nations. The old 
Monarchy and the new Republic thus found themselves standing in 
tlu^ relation to each other of mutual dependence — the one, to secure 
a field for the immediate commencement of her grand experiment of 
rendering free labor more productive than slave labor, and of creating 
new markets for her manufi(Mnres, — the other, to obtain protection 
and to oiler the produ<'ts of tlie labor of the freemen of Jjiberia to 
the commerce of tiie world. 

Iji:1 it may be asked, why (Jreat Hrilain should be willing to aid 



Jielations of England to Liberia. 55 

Liberia in extciiding her innucnco over Africa, and thns introduce into 
l!ie world a new nation who, as soon as its eij^hty millions of people 
are civilized and stimulated to inilnstry, can have the prepo}iderance 
over all the ivorld in tropical productions, and consequently, have 
the means of acquiring power and inlluence in the workl equal to that 
of other nations. The solution of this question is not diilicuU. 

The policy of Great Britain, for a long period, caused her to grasp 
after foreign colonial possessions, and her glory and her strength was 
believed to be measured by the extent to which she could multi])lv 
lier foreign dependencies. When her manufixcturing interests began 
to multiply, she found a great stimulus to this branch of her national 
resources, in the markets furnished by her colonics. The increased 
conn^ieree thus created, furnished another channel for the employment 
of British capital and enterprise. The multitude of sailors required 
for die merchant service, were readily transferred to her navy in 
times of war, and gave her immense power on the ocean. ' But the 
unfortunate attempt of England,' says McCulloch, in his statistical 
account of the British Empire, to compel the American colonists ' to 
contribute toward the revenue of the empire, terminating so disas- 
trously, has led her ever since to renounce all attempts to tax her 
colonies for any purpose, except that of their own internal government 
and police,' Colonies, tlierefore, have since been cherished chielly 
on account of the outlets they afford to her surplus population; the 
field they otTer to private adventurers for the acquisition of fortunes, 
to be afterwards transferred to the mother country; the increase they 
add to her commerce ; the markets which they furnish for her manu- 
factures ; and the agricultural or mineral products which they supph", 
in return, for consumption and use in England. 

An opinion, however, is beginning to possess the public mind in 
England, that the possession of colonies is not of the especial 
importance to her that they were once considered. The expenditure 
for their government and defense often outweighs the political and 
commercial advantages realized from their possession. It is now 
believed, that her commercial and manufacturing interests can be as 
well if not better promoted, by a liberal commerce with indepomlent 
stales, than .with colonies under her own control. This conviction 
has been forced upon the English, chietly by the results which have 
followed the Independence of the United States. The British go- 
vernment now derives ten times more advantage, says McCuLi.ocii, 
from intercourse with the United States, than when she had a 
Governor in every state, or than she has derived from all her other 
colonies put together. In a more comprehensive view of British 
relations, by Porter, in his Progress of Nations, we find it stated, 
that, in 1837, the exports of Great Britain to the United States 
amounted to more than half the sum of her shipments to the whole 
of Europe, while of her entire foreign exports, amouniing to $235,- 
000,000, only one-third was consumed by her colonies. 

But as other governments have arisen and attained stability, and 
encouragement has been afforded by them to home industry, the 



5G Relatione of England to Liberia, 

instinct of self preservation has led to the adoption of such restric- 
tive duties as would protect iheir people, in the infancy of their 
manufacturing efforts, against tlie superiority in machinery, capital 
and skill of older nations. In this way England has been so much 
restricted, from time to time, in her commercial operations, that, in 
1844, (Westminster Keview) her exports to the European states, 
notwithstanding their vast increase of population, were considerably 
less tlian they had been forty years ago. 

IJut England has been embarrassed, not only by the restrictive 
duties of other governments, but many of them are beginning to rival 
her, in the sale of mauvfaclures, in those countries whose markets 
are still open to foreign competition. This rivalry in manulaeturcs 
is one of more serious import to Great Britain than even the rivalry 
■which opposes her in tropical productions. 7Vie latter is to her as 
the arteries, the former the heart. The truth of this assertion will 
be seen in the following statements. 

The great leading interest of England, — her principal dependence 
for the iiuiintaiiiance of her power and iniluence, — is her nianufac- 
tures. Out of this interest grows her immense connnercc, and from 
lier commerce arises her ability to sustain her vast navy, giving to 
her such a controlling influence in the affairs of the world. ' Wealth, 
civdization, and knowledge, add rapidly and indctinitely to the 
powers of manufacturing and commercial industry.' All these Great 
Britain possesses in an eminent degree. ' It is asserted that the 
manufactures of England could, in a short time, be made to quadruple 
their produce — that so vast is the power which the steam engine has 
added to the means of pi'oduction in commercial industry, that it is 
pusceptible of almost indefinite and immediate extension — that 
Manchester and Glasgow could, in a few years, prepare themselves 
for furnishing muslin and cotton goods to the whole world — that with 
England the great difficulty always felt is, not to get hai;ds to keep 
pace with the demand of the consumers, but to gel a demand la keep 
pace ivitli the hands employed in the production.'' 

Willi such resources and capabilities, and with such interests 
involved in their development and extension — interests involving the 
very existence of the empire — England is not to he easily defeated 
in her purposes. When restricted or excluded from one market, 
she speedily seeks or creates another. The intelligence, the enter 
prise, and the energies, of her subjects, are called forth by govern 
nient, and made subservient to the promotion of her interests and the 
fxtension of her commerce and lier power. The desert or savage 
Islands of the sea; the bulwarks of India, or the walls of China; 
the frozen regions of the north, or die tropical suns of the south, 
present few olistacles to her enterprise. Nor need we stop to prove, 
in detail, that the almost irresistible energies of Great Britain, thus 
put forth, and embracing in their range all the earth, y???// their chief 
motive pou-er in her desire to at end the sale of her manufactures 
Crush lier inanufacluros, :jnd the throne will soon totter to its fall 
But what gives a tenfolil interest and importance to her enterprises 



Relations of England to Liberia. G7 

is, that wherever she goes, wherever her standard is planted, a 
Christian Civilization, though forming no part of her design, 
almost invariably follows her conquest of, or treaty with, a pagan 
nation or a savage tribe. The greatness of England, and her con- 
sequent necessities, are thus compelling her to the fulfillment of a 
mission of vast moment to the world; and in its execution she seems 
likely to be driven from point to point until she completes the earth's 
circuit. Though she " meaneth not so," yet she may emphatically 
be called the great agent for the extension of civilization. H\\c 
is now, it seems, compelled to expend her energies upon Africa, so 
as to secure to herself the advantages arising from its civilization. 
Two hundred thousand of her own subjects are now annually emi- 
grating to other countries. This is to England an annual loss of 
two hundred tliousand laborers, whom she cannot profitably employ 
at home. But were the hordes of barbarians in tropical Africa 
civilized, and engaged in developing its immense resources, the 
demand created in the supply of their wants would furnish labor for 
all unemj)loyed English subjects, and add immensely to the pros- 
perity of Great Britain. 

It will now be seen that England is not only interested in encour- 
aging the cultivation of tropical productions by Liberia, as a means 
of destroying the slave trade and slavery, and of crippling the 
energies of her rivals, but that she is also most deeply interested in 
securing tlie markets which Liberia will open up in Africa for 
English manifactiires. 'I'ropical Africa can never afford an outlet 
for European emigration, and can, therefore, be of no importance to 
England for that purpose. Its commercial advantages can be as well 
secured in the hands of independent states, as if England had posses- 
sion of it as colonies. Great Britain, therefore, can, consistently with 
her policy and her interests, employ her inlluence and her power in 
promoting the welfare of Liberia. Nay, more, it will be seen, when 
all the facts stated are considered, that she is compelled, by her own 
necessities, to use the most energetic measures for the speedy exten- 
sion of the influence and the sovereignty of the Republic of Liberia, 
as the point where she can, at the earliest period, commence her 
important experiment. Other points hereafter, may, and no doubt 
vv^illbe speedily made subservient to her purpose, but Liberia is her only 
present reliance for the commencement of her great work. Civiliza- 
tion is here already introduced and begins to radiate into the interior, 
and only needs the necessary aid and time to extend its blessings 
throughout Africa. 

It is true, that England will have rivals, in the sale of her manu- 
factures, in Liberia. She cares but little for that, however, because 
her focilities for manufacturing are, at present, and must be for years 
to come, so much superior to that of all other countries, that she can 
successfully rival them, even in their own markets, when not embar- 
rassed by tariffs. She has taken good care to make the first treaty 
of commerce and amity with Liberia, and thus stands in the fore- 
ground, as the friend of the young Reoublic. 



5S delations of England to Liberia. 

Now, then, we rcpe:it, wiilioul the fear of successful contradiction, 
that Great Britain linds herself in a po^^ili()^, at this moment, so 
disadvantageous, hotii in her relations to tropical cultivation and in 
the sale of her manufactures, that one principal means of extrica- 
tion is in the success of Liberia, and that she is, tlierefoie, vitally 
interested in having the young Republic extend its influence, with all 
possible rapidity, over the continent of Africa ; so as, at the earliest 
practicable day, to have her eighty millions of naked or half-clothed 
inliabitants subjected to civilization, stimulated to industry, clothed in 
British fabrics, and, in return, producing abundantly those tropical 
products now become absohitely necessary, for the manufactures, tlie 
luxuries, and the necessities of life, auiongst the civilized nations of 
the temperate zones. And with such interests involved in the suc- 
cess of Liberia, and with such power and influence enlisted in her 
support, humanly speaking, how can our Colonization scheme fail ? 

But wc must hasten to a conclusion of tliis protracted discussion, and leave many 
points of additional interest untouched. Indeed nothing but the great importance of 
the bearings of the questions which have been investigated, can justify the occupa- 
tion of so much time. The cause of humanity, however, demands that attention 
shall be given to these topics. Africa has long groaned hopelessly to be delivered 
from the deluge of woes which has for ages rolled over her. Tlie dawn of her re- 
demption is now appearing. The light of civilization and Christianiiy has broken 
forth upon her shores and begins to dispel the gloom of centuries. 'l"he slave traders, 
like so many spirits of darkness, are comi)ellcd to limit their hellish labors to districts 
yet unillumincd by that lii'ht. Nothing seems to i)e wanting to the accomplishment 
cjf .Africa's redemption but a sull'icient increase of the agencies which have already 
Deen productive of such rich fruits in J-iberia. These agencies are being rapidly 
railed into action. The Providence of (Jod is operating upon the nations, most di- 
rectly concerned in the question of Africa's future destiny, so as to make it their in- 
terest to favor the civilization of the inhabitants of that continent. (Jreat Britain, as 
already shown, is enlisted by considerations, commercial and maniifaci tiring, wliich 
s!>e never overlooks, to aid in this great work of i)hilanthro|)y. She can supply un- 
limited sums of money to stimulate enterprise and industry, and to promote civiliza- 
tion in Africa, and she ic/// do it as fast as it can be profitably employed. 

The ])eo|)lc of France, having achieved their own liberties, soon pronounced the 
freedom of the slaves in their islands. France did not wait to calculate the political 
and commercial considerations involved in emancipation, before she obeyed the dii-- 
tales uf humanity. Herself free, she desired the freedom of the world, llaving pos- 
session of many important points on the coast of .Africa, she will crush the slave 
trade wherever she has control, and tlius greatly aiii in its suppression and in the 
liromolion of African civilization. But as she has not within herself, the coniinaiid 
of the aL;eiicies necessary to civilize the districts which she owns, she may find herself 
compelled to call upon the colored people of the United >States to coininence and cany 
on the work, and thus jiromote our colonization enterprise. And a.s France has al- 
ready proved herself capable of acts of the greatest magnanimity, we must ask of hir 
one favor, though it may seem, in us, an act of presumption. But as an .•\meric.iii 
l{epiiblican, we can a|)pealto French Itepublicans. It is of the utmost importance to 
the lt<'pul)lic of l.ib.Tia, that it should have guaranteed to it, by other nations, tlie 
right to purchase and annex the whule line of coast from ISierra I.eone to Ca[ie Lo- 
jii'Z, so that nil other power may be allowed to inlerlere with the extension of its 
jurisdiction over that region, 'i'he Cial>oon, now in the possession of France, lies at 
the Koulhe.iHtern limits of this regioti, and is one of the most valuable jioints in Africa. 
We a.sk of France, therefore, that she shall oiler the tiaboon country, as a free gift, 
to the free colored |MM|)Ie of the United iSlates, upon which to form a new state iu 
coiinexicm with F.ilwri.i. And, from the circumstances under wiiicli her title to this 



Concluding Remarks. 59 

trrritory was acquired, during the Monarch//, it is believpcl that ific Republic, when 
the suUjcet is presented for its consideration, will yield it for that purpose. 

'J'he (Jniled States is also deeply interested in the success of Liberia, and is being 
involved in difficulties and perplexities propcUinc; her onward to a point where she, 
too, must exert herself in behalf of the young Republic. Commercial and manu- 
facturing interests will inlhicnce her, as they have already influenced Great Hritain. 
But in addition to these, other considerations of far deeper import will soon press 
themselves upon our attention. The rapid increase of our slave population is begin- 
ning to alarm the stoutest advocates of the perpetuation of slavery. V\'ith their 
uniform ratio of increase continued, which, it will be remembered, is three per cent. 
prr (innnm, in 50 years, from 1850, the slave population of the United States, will 
number 12,000,000, with an annual increase of 360,000. In 100 years hence, they 
will have increased to 44,500,000, with an annual increase of 1,300,000. And in 
150 years their numbers will be 165,000,000, and the yearly increase 5,000,000. 

Now, it is utterly impossible that this number of slaves can be held in bondage, 
or be profitably employed, by the southern states of our union, for half the period 
included in our calculation. But how emancipation is to be ultimately eft'ected, we 
cannot foretell. This we linow, that it must be done. The South is becoming aware 
of the ditl'iculties of the future of .slaveri/, and are beginning to look at its appalling 
consequences. Many states have already legislated to prevent the sale and transfer of 
the slaves of the more northern states into their bounds, and it would not oe unexpected, 
if, in a few years, the slave holders of the more northern slave states, should be unable 
to lind a market for their surplus slaves. And whenever this event occurs, the masters 
will soon be over-supplied with laborers which they cannot employ profitably, and 
emancipation must take place. And when ever this work commences, the work of 
Colonization to Africa will be greatly increased. Liberia, therefore, is to the south- 
ern states, as well as to those of the north, and to the nations of Europe, a point of very 
great interest. Not one of them, scarcely, can carry out their present policy without 
promoting the interests of our colony. In these facts we find an additional argument 
for the perpetuity of the Republic of Liberia. 

And further, if the scheme of tropical cultivation in Africa, by free labor, can ho 
successfully carried out, at an early day, and of which we entertain but little doubt, 
the work of emancipation in this country may be forced to a consummation much 
more rapidly than many suppose. The United States, it must be borne in mind, have 
not one acre of tropical lands. Our crops of cotton unci sugar, are both liable to 
bUjrht, by fro.-ts, before they are fully inatured and secured. But it is not so in 
Africa. More than three fourths of the lands of that vast continent are within the 
tropics, and secure from the action of frosts. The employment of capital, in tropical 
cultivation in A.frica, would long since have been extended to millions upon miUions 
of dollars, but for the error committed in attempting it by ivhite men and amongst 
an tincivil'zed people. This error is now detected and will not be repeated. 'J'he 
American Colonization Society has, by its etfirts, dispelled the doubts and difficulties 
overhanging the question of African Civilization. Capital, in a few years, can 
be employed more profitably in Liberia than in the United States. Capital and labor 
will soon both find their way to Africa, and perhaps in modes not now anticipated. 
It is no uncommon occurrence now, for a slave holder, in this country, to let his 
aldve out on parole, to earn a fixed price, upon the payment of which to the master, 
the slave is a freeman. It is very rare, in such cases, that a breach of faith occurs. 
Now, it may not be long, if the southern market should be closed against the sale of 
northern slaves, before this system of self-emancipation may be carried out upon a 
grand scale, by masters bargaining with their slaves to emigrate to Liberia, there 
to earn the price cf their freedom. Such an arrangement would add to the amount 
"f free labor products which must come into competition with those of the slave labor 
of our southern states. In this way Kentucky and Virginia could retaliate, with 
fearful eflbct, upon South (Carolina and Louisiana. 

But, as we hasten to a conclusion, we can only throw out suggestions without 
waitiu',' to dwell upon them. We are fully aware, that the idea that tropical culti- 
vation in Africa, can seriously affect the value of slave labor in the United States, for 
tfn;uri<s to come, will be considered visionary. But we must ask all such d(mbleis 
tu recollect, that commercial revolutions occur almost as suddenly, in this age, as 



00 Concluding Remarks. 

political ones. The world has learned how to achieve great things in a short time 
Wo western men have witnessed such wonders pass before our eyes, that we believe 
capital and labor, skill and eiiterjjrise, can accomplish any thing within the range off; 
human power, and that what formerly required centuries for its consummation, can: 
now be executed in months or years. Born in Ohio, when it was yet comparatively ' 
a wilderness, I, myself, have seen it rise to what it now is, and have also seen State ! 
after Ktate called rapidly into existence, in the wilderness of the west, in less than i 
h;df a century. And yet the sources of this prosperity and this progress are unex- ■ 
hausted and inexhaustible. No limits can be set to this progress but the impassable '- 
barriers of the great Pacific. 

Give to Liberia intelligent and industrious emigrants, and she, too, will advance in i 
prosperity and in greatness. 'I"he materials of such an emigration exist in the United I 
Stales, and our colored men, generally, are only awaiting the evidences of the truth i 
of what is said of Liberia. When convinced that it in not a trap to enslave them < 
again, as they have been told, they will move with the heart of one man, as the Is- \ 
raelites of old removed from Kgypt to Canaan. The sympathies of our colored men 
arc with England and Fran.-e. Tbese nations possess their confidence more fully 
than Americans. England and France are both interested in blessing Africa with 
civilization. A formal invitation from these two governments, addressed to our free 
colored people, and asking them to emigrate to Liberia, under their protection and 
patronage, would enlist tens of thousands to remove at once to the young Kepublic. 
These emigrants, being settled at suitable points along the coast, would greatly aid 
in checking the slave trade, and thus, its risks being much increased, the British 
capital employed at present in that traffic, ivould be ivi/hch-atvn from Brazil and 
transferred to Liberia. A large concentration of capital and labor in Africa, which 
are both praclic:ible, would soon be felt, in the markets of the world, iy the increased 
siipp/i/ of free labor tropical products brought into competition luith those of 
slave :<ibor. When this event shall occur, as occur it will, a reduction of the value 
of slave labor must follow; and this together with the rapidly increasing bulk of the 
now unwieldy mass of our slave population, must greatly hasten the period of 
final emanci[)ation. 

Now, if the possession of the sovereignty of the soil of tropical Africa, and tha 
control of its products, be of such vast political and commercial importance to such 
governments as France and England, as their policy towards Africa, heretofore, so 
fully indicates; we would re.<peclt'ully enquire of our c.dored people, whether their 
possession and control are not of equal importance and value to At'iican men them- 
selves'? And. if the monojMjly of tropical products once secured to Englishmen an 
ascendancy among nations; will not the same advantages be of equal importance to 
African men, and ailbrd to them the means of rising into national greatness and na- 
tional glory 1 And, further, if Africa is of such importance to Eumpean nations, 
that they will expend millions of dollars to secure to themselves the advantages of its 
proiiucis and its commerce; what will posterity, what will the world say, of those of 
our AlVican po[)ulation, ivho refuse to receive such a rich inheritance, though offered 
to their acceptance as a free gift ? And, again, if the destruction of the slave trado 
and the abolition of .slavery, be matters of such vast moral importance as to call for 
the united efforts of Christian men, throughout the world, to destroy them; and if 
these greatest of all modern moral enter])rises, inferior only to our j)urely missionary 
eilbrls, cainiot be accom|)lished, bit by our Christian colored men forming themselvc; 
into a rampart around the African coast; and if colored men can, by engaging iii 
this great moral and religious movement, better their own condiiinn ami secure ti 
themselves and their children, and ultimately to the millions of Africa, all the blessirms 
of social, civil, and religious liberty; why should we not urge tliem to a fair and cantbd 
consideration of the question of returning to .MVica as civilized and christianized men, 
to lake iiejiceful possession of that ancient inheritance from which their uncivilized 
and pai^an forefathers were forcibly torn? 

But wo shall not furllier weary your patience. We had designed presenting an 
arnmncnl for the success of the Kepublic of Liberia, based upon the innate moral 
[irinciple existing within her, and growinu; out of the religious lVee<lom secured to 
her citizens, and the am]>ic means of religious instruction provided for her people. 
But we forbear. 



PART SECOND 



The close of the last century exhibited the social and moral condi- 
tion of the world in such an aspect as to prove the excellency of 
CJlnistianily over all other religious systems. Paganism had long- 
yince wrought out its legitimate results, and demonstrated its impo- 
tency to produce a high degree of human happiness. Mohamme- 
danism, a shade better in its principles, had prdgressed but little 
b(^yond Paganism in promoting the welfare of its votaries. Both 
of these systems, constructed on principles consonant with fallen 
human nature, were,of necessity, becoming effete, and stood before the 
world as gigantic edifices, whose foundations were giving way, and 
tlie whole structures tumbling into ruins. 

Christianity, embracing principles antagonistic to all impurity and 
every form of injustice, and demanding of men implicit obedience to 
God, was no welcome visitor upon earth, but had to endure, from its 
earliest introduction, the most bitter enmity and the most sanguinary 
opposition. At the end of 330 years from Christ, in addition to the 
hostdity of the Jews, it had passed through ten successive persecu- 
tions by the Roman Emperors, whicii, failing to suppress it, only 
■ served to prove that the religion of the Saviour of the world was 
indestructible. 

Wlien, therefore, des{)ots discovered their inability to annihilato 
the new religion, combinations were formed to adopt it in the room 
of preexisting systems, or rather, perhaps, to engraft it upon ihem, 
and mould it to suit their purposes. But notwithstanding that 
Cliristianity was thus corrupted and perverted into an engine of 
political and ecclesiastical despotism, it still retained mucli of its 
innate vitality, and greatly advanced the social and moral welfare 
of those subjected to its influence; thus proving its superiority over 
tlie false religious systems which liad so long prevailed. 

It being an essential element of the religion revealed by Christ to 
generate independence of thought, its believers were often found 

(61) 



G2 Introduclion. 

holding' opinions at vnriance witli those established by law. These 
tendencies, it was feared, would make the unrestrained toleration 
of Christianity dangerous to Despotism, because freedom of thought 
and of speech, allowed to the people, would weaken confidence in 
the infallibility of the judgment of kings, and thus peril the stability 
of thrones. The art of printing being undi^^covered, the living 
teacher, for a long period, was the chief agency for the propagation 
of the new faith. To silence his voice, when not in unison with 
despotic will, it was conceived, would limit independence of thqughr, 
and the desired uniformity of opinion and implicit obedience to rulcr.s 
be secured. Hence arose efforts, extending through many centuries, 
and leading to the shedding of torrents of blood, to force upon the 
world a unity of faith. But the employment of the rack and the 
dungeon, the gibbet and the stake, only tended more fully to evolve 
another iniicrent principle of the doctrines taught by the Son of 
Ciod — (he natural eqvaUly of 7nanklnd, and the individual respon- 
sihilily of man to God, demanding for the human race equal 
iights and liberty of conscience. 

A doctrine so inconsistent with preconceived opinions, and 
fraught, it was perceived, with such dangers to civil and ecclesi- 
astical despotisms, could not but lead to tiie most vigorous exertions 
for its suppression. Success so far attended their elforts, that t!ie 
light of the Gospel became dimmed and ages of darkness ensued, 
during which despotism reposed in safety amid the moral night it 
had produced, until the forgotten Bible, chained within walls of 
massive stone, as if to hide it from the people, was discovered by 
the master-spirit of his age, and its divine light made to reiUumine 
the world. 

The occurrence of this event with the nearly simultaneous dis- 
covery of the art of printing, which led to a rapid and indefinite 
multiplication of copies of the Scriptures, now imposed upon despots 
tlie double task, of exterminating the living teacher, and of preventing 
the circulation of the printed Bil)le. Persecution again followed 
persecution, until, under the guidance of a kind Providence, a few 
of the advocates of civil and religious liberty, ileeing for their lives 
from Europe, Bil)le in hand, found a refuge in the new world. Here 
the legitimate fruits of Christianity, when untrammelled by the 
devices of men, were soon developed, and the American Kcpuhlic 
arose, as a beacon to the world, teaching what a Free Cliristianily 
can accomplish for mankind. 

In the mean time the principles of religious lilicrty had gained 
some favor in a few of the nations of Euroi)e, and j)roduced their 
appropriate results, though in a more limited degree than in the 
United States, because religion was left less free. And thus there 
was a progressive movement on both sides of the Atlantic, leading to 
a higher civilization and a greater sum of human happiness than the 
older systems had ever produced, or than has yet been attained 
where they still prevail. 

Near the close of the last century, therefore, the contrast could be 
clearly drawn between Paganism, Mohaauncdanisin, a Christianity 



Introduction. 63 

excluding the Bible from the people aiul modeled to fetter the 
freedom of thought and of speech, and a free Christianity taking ihe 
l}il)le alone as its basis, and, without the intervention of any luiman 
agent, placing tlie soul of man directly in communion with God. 
'j'he eflects ol these various systems, in advancing or retarding human 
happiness, and in promoting or checking civilization, had become 
so manifest, that the Christian philantliropist, acting under the im- 
pulses of the law of love, resolved upon giving to the world a IVee 
Christianity. 

It is unnecessary, before an intelligent audience, to enumerate the 
obstacles which impede the progress of the agents employed to bestow 
a Free Christianity upon the world, with the view of securing to 
mankind a higher civilization and increased enjoyment in this life, as 
well as to impart to the hearts of men the hope of eternal iiappiness 
in the w'orld to come. It is only necessary to our present purpose 
to say, that, in all these efforts tliere has been no field seh'Cted which 
was so dark and unpromising, and none that so long l^aiiled all exer- 
tions, and so utterly failed of success, as that of Africa previous to tlie 
colonization of its coast by civilized and Christian colored men. The 
facts in relation to this subject were fully presented in our lecture, 
one year ago, in this hall. It is there shown that two hundred and 
forty years of effort by the Catholics, and one hundred and lorty by 
I'rotestant missionaries, including the period of the operations of our 
Liberia Colony, had proved, conclusively, that the redemption of 
Africa from barbarism cannot be accomplished by ivkite men, but 
that colored men must be employed in that vast work of benevolence. 
It was also proved, that the slave trade, after the expenditure, by 
England, of more than one hundred millions of dollars for its sup- 
pression, instead of being diminished in extent, has been steadily and 
rapitlly increasing; and that the conviction is forced upon the public 
mind, that this greatest of crimes against humanity can only be sup- 
pressed by surrounding the coast with colonies of intelligent colored 
men, who must be protected and sustained by Christian governmcnls 
until the civilization of the native population can be effected. 

The important truth being ascertained, that the agents in the civili- 
zation of Africa must be men of African blood, the great question 
which presses itself upon the consideration of the philanthropist and 
the Christian, is this : Where can we obtain colored men in suffi- 
cient numbers, who are properly educated and enlightened, and who 
are themselves the subjects of redeeming grace, to act as agents in 
bestowing a Christian civilization upon Africa? 

To answer this question, is a prominent object of the present lec- 
ture. But, to obtain a just conception of the magnitude of the work 
that lies before us, it becomes necessary to determine the extent and 
character of the social and moral evils existing in Africa; and this is 
the more necessary, because of the prevalence of the opinion, that the 
degradation of Africa is chiefly due to the slave trade. Our investi- 
gations, we believe, will fully sustain the truth of the assertion, that 
even if it were possible to break up the slave trade by other means 
than colonization, but little would be gained to the cause of humanity 



tj I iiocial and Moral Condition of ^Qj'nca. 

and little good accomplished for Africa; and tliat if the benevolent 
designs toward the African race, whicii so generally prevail among 
good men, be executed, there must be a union of elTort of all the friends 
of this oppressed people, in supporting and extending the work of 
colonizatidu in Africa ; and further, that the United Stales is placed 
in such a peculiar position, as clearly to indicate that we alone, of all 
tlie nations in the world, are able to give to Africa that form of Chris- 
tianity and of civil jrovernment which will secure to her the hisfhf'st 
degree of civilization and the greatest amount of prosperity. The 
materials collected have been arranged under the following heads. 

I. The social and moral condition of Africa, independent of the 

slave trade. 
11. The modifications produced by the slave trade upon the social 

and moral condition of Africa. 
III. The relation which the slavery of the United States bears to 
the recovery of Africa from barbarism. 

I. The earlier travelers in Africa, meeting with many acts of 
kindness, formed favorable opinions of the natives, and (he impression 
has been created, that the greater part of the evils oppressing that 
country have had their origin in the slave trade, and are not a neccs- 
Bary consequence of her own social and moral condition. A better 
acquaintance with the state of the interior has tended to correct the 
(irst impressions. The iron despotism of their kings, the absolute- 
ness of their domestic slavery, the objects of their idolatrous worship, 
the modes ol' performing their religious rites, the cruel superstitions 
existing everywhere, their degrading customs, their human sacri- 
fices, tlieir cannibalism, it was discovered, must have dated their 
origin fiir back beyond the period of the commencement of the slave 
trade, and produced the most debasing eflects upon the inhabitants. 
The slave trade, it was evident, had not originated the greater evils 
muler which Africa groaned, but was itself one of the legitimate 
fruits of the social and moral degradation previously existing and 
still perpetuated on that continent. A brief statement of facts will 
j)rovo the accuracy of tlie view here presented. 

When England, in 1808, prohibited the slave trade, it was antici- 
pated that, as this trallic diminished, and a legitimate commerce 
increased, the civilization of the Alrican people would necessarily be 
accomplished. While she had the monopoly of the slave trade, she 
had erected many forts on the coast of Africa, and on declaring it 
illegal and commencing her operations for its suppression, they were 
imniedialely transformed into trading posts for opening up a legi'.l 
commerce with the natives. 'I'liis ciiange of jiolicv, requiring many 
agcnlH to reside on the coast and to visit the interior, soon made the 
world belter acquainted wilh Africa. 

As tiic power of (Jreat Britain was considered almost onuiipotent, 
it was not d()ul)ted at first, but that tlie slave trade would be annihi- 
lated through her influence and exertions, and the consequent 
civilizaiion of Africa immediately follow. I'ul the elements rj 



Human Sacrifices. 65 

civilization were not then so well understood as at present. It was 
believed that to extend commerce was to extend civilization. The 
commerce conducted between the enhi^ditened nations of Europe, it 
was known, had greatly promoted their civilization. It was soon 
found, however, that the causes of African degradation lay deeper 
than had been conceived. The difTerence between the intellectual 
and moral capacities of the civilized and uncivilized man was found 
to be almost infinite. The horrible superstitions by which the 
raiiuls of the people of Africa had been darkened and bewildered 
nuist first be eradicated before civilization could progress. Com- 
merce, unaided, it was soon demonstrated, could not accomplish this 
work. An active commerce at Cape Messurado, conducted foi 
three hundred and fifty years, had failed to advance the natives a 
single step toward civilization. Similar results had followed else- 
where. Barbarous tribes, then as now, it was discovered, were in- 
capable of comprehending moral truth while in the savage state; and 
could only be brought under its influence by a careful course of 
moral teaching. But the appetites and passions of their natures 
being the same as with other men, commerce unavoidably imparled 
to them the vices of civilization, and introduced among them the 
elements of physical destruction, instead of planting the seeds of 
ii\oral renovation. The result of missionary efforts elsewhere, had 
led to the discovery that the light of the gospel must be let into the 
soul before the darkness of heathenism, in which it was shrouded, 
could be dissipated, and the intellectual and moral elevation of the 
people be promoted. Christianity, the only parent of a pure moral- 
ity, it had been perceived, was the primary clement in raising men 
from barbarism, and that civilization, industry, and commerce were 
necessary fruits of the gospel wherever planted. These facts being 
observed, though as yet but dimly and by few, led to efforts for the 
intioduction of ChrisUanity into Africa, and the missionaries thus 
employed furnished to the world additional light upon the subject 
of its social and moral condition. The establishment of culonies 
upon the coast has also afibrded further opportunities of investigation 
and supplied fuller information in relation to the terrible moral gloom 
overshadowing vVfrica. 

It is, then, from the investigations of British agents, travelers, mis- 
sionaries and colonists, that we derive our facts in relation to the social 
and moral condition of Africa. 

We shall begin with Uieir human sacrifices. According to their 
ideas, the future world will be a counterpart of this; will present the 
same objects to the senses, the s:ime enjoyments, and the same dis- 
tinction of ranks in society. Upon this belief are founded proceed- 
ings not only absurd, but of tlie most violent and atrocious description. 
A profusion of wealth is buried in the grave of the deceased, who is 
supposed to carry it into the other world : and human victims are 
sacrificed, often in whole hecatombs, under the delusion that they will 
attend as his guards and ministers in the future mansion. This sav- 
age superstition seem? to have prevailed to a peculiar extent in thoso 
5 



CG JJuman Sacnficcs. 

great interior moiuircliics, \vhicl), in other respects, are more civilizeil 
than tlie rest of Western Africa. 

Tiie Asliantees liave two annual customs, as they are called, says 
]Mr. Bowdilcli, a British agent, of 1819, in whicli tlie King, and chief 
men, seek to propitiate the departed spirits of their ancestors, by tlie 
Bacrifice of a crowd of human victims. Foreign slaves and criminals 
are selected in preference, but as each seeks to multiply the number, 
unprotected persons cannot walk abroad without the hazard of being 
seized and immolated. At the death of any of the royal family, vic- 
tims must bleed in thousands ; and the same is the case when the 
king seeks from the powers above, favorable omens respecting any 
great projected undertaking. On the death of the king, a most hor- 
rid scene of human slaughter takes place ; all the sacrifices that had 
been made for the death of every subject during his reign being 
required to be repeated, to amplify that for the death of the monarcii, 
and to solemnize it in every excess of extravagance and barbarity. 
'J'he brothers, sons, and nephews of the king, affecting temporary 
insanity, burst forth with their muskets, and fire promiscuomsly among 
the crowd. Few persons of rank dare stir from their houses for the 
first two or three days, but drive forth their slaves as a composition 
for their own absence. The king's household slaves are all murdered 
on his tomb, to the number of a hundred or more, and women in abun- 
dance. As the king is allowed tlu'ee tiiousand three hundred ami 
thirty-three wives, and as the immolation of the wife on the death of 
the husband is customary in Africa, it is probable that many of the 
slaughtered women are the wives of the king, despatched to attend 
tiieir deceased lord in another world. The king of Ashantee, other- 
wise a very amiable and benevolent sovereign, on the death of his 
mother, says Mr. Bowditch, devoted three tiiousand victims to water 
her grave, two thousand of whom were Fantee prisoners, and llie rest 
levied in certain proportions on the several towns. 

That tliis is no fabled account of the cruel superstitions of Ashantee, 
is evident from very recent testimony. As late as 1811, intelligence 
from Lil)eria, published in the African Repository, states tliat at the 
di-alii of the late kintr, one thousand human victims were sacrificed. 

The kingdom of Dahomey is governed upon the same system as 
Ashantee, and witii all its deformities — which it carries to a still more 
violent excess. The bloody customs take place on a still greater 
scale ; and the bodies of the victims, says Mr. B., instead of being 
buried, are hung upon the walls, and allowed to putrify. Human 
skulls make the favorite ornament of the palaces and temi)les, and the 
king has lii.s sleeping apartment paved with them. 

This statement is coiUirmcd by the testimony of tlie Rev. J. L. 
Wilson, missionary in Western Africa, in 1839, who writes, that 
•'human sacrifices arc still oll'ercd in great numbers, not only in Ashan- 
tee, but in all the petty principalities of the surrouniling country. 
Th(! story that the king of Dahomey has his yard paved with human 
skulls is no fal)le. 'I'licrc are I'^uropeans on the coas^t who have seen 
it, and can bear witufss to the truth of the slateuient." 

Cioveriior AI)son, of Oape Coast Clastic, visiied the king of Dahomey 



Human Sacrifices. 67 

at a time when six slave, ships were at Wliydah, anxious to make 
j)iirchases, and wlien, owing to the scarcity of slaves, the prices had 
risen to nearly thirty pounds. But such \v:is llie strength of super- 
stition over avarice, that tiie king refused to sell his prisoners to the 
slave traders, preferring to put them to death for their skulls, in the 
contemjjlation of which the people seemed to take a horrible delight. 
When the governor inquired of the king, if his going to war was not 
to obtain captives to sell to the slave traders, he replied, " I have 
killed many thousands without thinking of the slave market, and 
shall kill many thousands more. Some heads I place at my door, 
others 1 throw into the market place, that people may stumble over 
them. This gives a grandeur to my customs ; this makes my ene- 
mies fear me ; and this pleases my ancestors, to whom I send them. 
Dahomeans do not make war to make slaves, but to make prisoners 
to kill at the customs." 

The king of Dahomey used to hold a constant communication with 
his deceased father. Whenever he wished to announce to him any 
remarkable event, or to consult him on any emergency, he would send 
for one of his ablest messengers, and after delivering to him his errand, 
chop off his head. It sometimes happened, that after the head was 
otT, he recollected something else which he wished to say, in which 
case a second messenger was dispatched, in like manner, with a post- 
script to his former message. Gov. Abson was present on an occa- 
sion of this kind. The poor fellow selected for the honor of bearing 
his majesty's message, aware of what was to happen, declared he was 
unacquainted with the road, on which the tyrant, drawing his sword, 
vociferated, "I'll show you the way," and with one blow severed 
his head from his body — highly indignant that an European should 
have witnessed the least expression of reluctance in the performance 
of a duty which is considered a great honor. 

Such seems to have been the inefficiency of British arrangements 
on the coast, at the period when Mr. Bowditch visited Africa ; and 
such the want of moral influence exerted by the residents over the 
natives, that Sir James Yeo informed the committee of African mer- 
chants, that the impotence of their outposts were such, that they 
could not even prevent the offering of human sacrifices under their 
walls. Two victims, says Mr. B., liad been sacrificed, with the most 
refined barbarity, in broad day, close to the fort of Accra. 

Human sacrifices, on a more limited scale, seem to be of common 
occurrence. The Rev. Mr. Schon, of the English Church Missionary 
Society, who accompanied the Niger Expedition in 1843, says that 
human sacrifices are ofiered by the Ibo people, residing one hundred 
and twenty miles above the mouth of the Niger. The usual m.odes 
of destroying life are to fasten the victims to the branches of trees 
close to the river and leave them to famish, or to tie their legs together 
and drag them from place to place until they expire, when the bodies 
are cast into the river to be devoured by alligators. In a tour of 
exploration along the coast, in 1839, the Rev. J. L. Wilson says, 
" We were informed that only a I'ew days previous to our arrival, a 
neighboring chief had, ia coiisequence of an eclipse of the sun, which 



G3 Human Sacrifices. 

was rep-nrclccl as ominous of approacliinir calamity, buried several of 
his sulijects alive; and it was not known how many more would Le 
subjected to tlie same fate." 

On the gold coast, the shark is worshipped by the iidiabilanis. 
Every year, says Dr. Porter, the inhabilants of Bonney doom a guilt- 
less child to expiate, with its life, the ibllics and crimes of its destroy- 
ers. 'I'he poor babe is named for this bloody rite at its birtli, from 
which time it is called their Jewjew, and allowed every indulgence 
that its fancy can wish for, until it arrives at nine or ten years of age, 
when its sanguinary doom must be fulHlled. Its tears and lamenta- 
tions avail not; its parents have placed their feelings of nature on the 
altar ol" a mistaken devotion ; it is therefore left alone to plead with 
those that hope to benefit by its destruction. The sharks collect as 
if in expectation of the dainty meal being prepared for them. The 
spot chosen is a point of sand, into which a stake is driven at low 
water mark. The mother sees her innocent offspring bound to this, 
and as tlie tide advances, left alone. Various noises are made to 
drown tlie cries of the terrified child. Its little hands are seen im- 
ploring, and its lips calling for her aid ; the water soon reaches the 
stake, and the greedy monsters are seen by the tender victim quickly 
approaciiing with tlie deepening tide. The shouting mob stand 
watching tiie stake until the advancing tide has emboldened the sharks 
to approach their prey — then their dreadful revelry begins. No tear 
is shed for the poor sufl'erer, but the day is concluded with rejoicing 
and festivities. 

But we will only trespass upon your patience so far as to present one 
more case under this part of our investigations. 'J"he Liberia Lumi- 
nary, of 1848, gives an account of the sacrifice of a human being, a 
short time previous, under circumstances which prove that there is 
no abatement of the power of superstition over men's minds in Africa, 
where the liglit of the gospel has not been reflected. 

A famous Goulah chief, anxious for success in a military campaign 
upon wliich he was setting out against the Condoes, applied to a Ma- 
homniedan j)ri(st to know what he should do to insure success. The 
priest inquired of him whether he was able to make the necessary 
sacrifice, to which he replied that he could make any sacrifice that 
coulii be named. The nefarious imposter then told him he must sac- 
rifice his son ! and, taking his dead body upon his shoulders, his feet 
.swung around his neck, and his head hunsi behind him, in this man- 
ner advance before his troops to the contest, and victory would be 
certain ! ! The directions were complied with. Calling his son into 
a house, lie caught him, deliberately lied him, and then, with his own 
parental hand, he cut his Uiroat! Having oflered this sacrifice, he 
and bis troops prcjiared to advance toward the jurisdiction of their 
cncniics ; then was this inhuman father seen with his dead son on his 
l)ack. in the manner directe<l, without any display of parental affee- 
lion or of emotion, save that aroused in his barbarous breast by the 
c<uifiditit expectation of victory. Being successful in three subse- 
qui nt enfrageuienls, this horrible sacrifice will, no doubt, be hereafter 
considered as the sure precursor of victory. 



Idolatry. 69 

Such was African superstition in 1848, and such will it continue 
to be until Christianity dispels the gloom which overcasts the native 
mind. 

We turn now to African Idolatry. The native Africans, generally, 
have very obscure conceptions of the nature and attributes of God 
and of a future state of moral retribution ; while almost every super- 
stition that can degrade the human mind reigns in full sway. 

To express generally what is sacred, what is forbidden, what is 
endowed with supernatural powers, either beneficent or malignant, 
they employ the term fetiche or gri-gri. Everything which strikes 
the fancy of a negro is made his fetiche. This word is derived 
either from the Porlngese word fetisso, a block adored as an idol, or 
from feliczeira, an enchantress. The Portuguese gave the name to 
the idols of the negroes on the Senegal, and afterward the word 
received a more extensive meaning. The general signification now 
given io fetiche, seems to be, an object worsshipped, not representing 
any living figure. The grand natural fetiches are rocks, hills, or trees 
of remarkable size and beauty. But there are fantastic objects of 
veneration, which each individual adopts and carries about with him. 
Such are a piece of ornamented wood, the teeth of a dog, tiger, or 
elephant, a goat's head, a fish bone, or the end of a ram's horn. They 
believe the material substances which they worship to be endowed 
with intelligence, and the power of doing them good or evil : and also 
that the fetichere, or priest, being in council with their fetiche, is 
made acquainted with all that those divinities know, and thence is 
familiar with the most secret thoughts and actions of men. The 
household, or family fetiche, narrowly inspects the conduct of every 
individual in the house, and rewards or punishes each according to his 
deserts. The public fetiches are supposed to be equally watchful 
over community in general. 

These fetiches they set up in the houses, the fields, or the entrance 
and center of the villages, erect altars to them, and place before them 
dishes of rice, maize, and fruits. The better sort of families have 
weekly festivals on which they sacrifice a cock or sheep. This 
gri-gri or fetiche worship is universal, and hours would not suffice to 
detail the particulars connected with it, or the debasing influence 
which it exerts over the mind. The Rev. Mr. Schon found it prac- 
ticed far up the Niger. He says, 1843, "They showed me their 
gods. Under a small shade erected before almost every house, 
among the people of Iddah, were broken pots, pieces of yams, 
feathers of fowls, horns of animals, broken bows and arrows, knives 
and spears. Such are their gods ! It is easy to attack them or to 
expose them to ridicule, but not so easy to eradicate the superstitious 
belief in them from out of the hearts of men." 

The framing of tliese fantastic objects of African worship, conse- 
crating them, and selling them at enormous prices, forms the clnef 
occupation of the African priesthood. Various are the expedients 
resorted to by these priests, or gri-gri men, to obtain presents from 
the people, by operating on their superstitious notions. One mode js 



70 I^cvil Worship. 

by teaclilng that food must be placed at the graves of the dead for tlie 
deceased person. The Rev. J. L. Wilson visited one town, where 
the bones of the deceased king, who had been dead many years, have 
been enclosed in a box, and deposited in a house appropriated exclu- 
sively for this purpose. Fresh food, water, and every comfort which 
a living man could wish, are daily deposited in the house. These 
provisions, tiie people are told by a gri-gri man, who statedly visited 
the place to hold converse with the deceased majesty, are devoured 
by the king. Mr. Wilson, after some difliculty, obtained leave to 
enter this sacred place, through the small opening aflbrding admit- 
tance, and found a bed, chairs, table, &c., used, no doubt, by the 
superintending priest during his visits. 

But in addition to the fetiche idol worship, idolatry of the more 
common form among pagans, seems also to be practised in Africa. 

In 1833, the Rev. Mr. Schou wrote the Church Missionary Soci- 
ety, from Sierra Leone, that he had been assured that idol worship 
was practised in the town, but that those engaged in it, desired to 
evade detection. Seeing a number of people surrounding a house, 
he went to the spot and found indications convincing him that some 
idolatrous ceremonies were being conducted within doors. Attempt- 
ing to enter, he was repulsed. Returning some time afierward, in 
company with another missionary, and removing a little of the 
thatching, he looked in and beheld ten or twelve women prostrated 
before a hideous idol. Finding themselves discovered, the natives 
were thrown into the greatest confusion, and opening the door, 
allowed the missionaries to enter. The mere view, says Mr. 
Schon, was sufficient to fill the mind with horror. The large 
idol actually represented the devil, with a blood-stained face and 
two horns. Before him stood a water pot half tilled with the blood 
of animals that were sacrificed to him. In anotiier corner of the 
room were smaller idols and gri-gris, lying and hanging in great 
number; and fowls, which were sacrificed to them, were lying in their 
blood on the lloor of the room. 

Another peculiar form of the African superstition is their Devil- 
U'orahip. 'I'he people cherish the general belief of a future state, 
liitlc connected, liowever, with any iilea of moral retribution. The 
question is, whether they have faidifully observed the promise made 
to ihcj'clic/ie. They uniformly, says tlie Rev. J. L. Wil.-^on, ascribe 
the works of creation to God, but regard the devil as tlie audior of 
all providence. ILmicc will be seen at every entrance into their 
towns, a gri-gri pole, with a rag upon it, or something of the kind, 
either to prevent his entrance, or conciliate his favor. They never 
oj)en trade on board of a sliip, without poiirintr a liliation of rum 
into the water, as a portion witii whiili the tit'vil is pariicularly 
])leased. 

'J'he Rev. Mr. Wynkoop states, that at all the entrances in the 
rnclosure, or roads to the town, are small houses called the grand 
devil-hortac, where tlie pcojile deposite din'erpnt artich.'S in them to 
conciliate his drciidcd majesty. These presents, of course, form a 
part of the perquisites of the priests. 



TViichcraft. 71 

Dr. A. C. Wilson, writing from tlie station at Fishtown, 1840, 
says, " Today there was a bullock sacriliccd to conciliate the devil, 
asking those I'avors of him that should be asked of God, and giving 
him the honor which belongs to Jehovah alone." 

The God whom the Africans are supposed to worship, says Dr. 
McDowell, who spent some time at the colonies, has been called the 
'■'■devil,''' by European visitors. The place selected for the perform- 
ance of the mysteries connected with his worship, is in the center 
of some thick forest, called the gri-gri bush, or devil-bush. The 
influence which it is made to exercise over the people generally, is 
partly superstitious, partly political. The chiefs or head men meet 
once a month, and otl'er goats or other animals, as a sacrifice to this 
evil being or devil. Into this sacred forest no woman or boy is 
allowed to intrude, the penalty being death, foreign slavery, or a fine. 
The young freemen of the ti'ibe are initiated into manhood by being 
taken into the devil bush, where they are shown a wooden cross 
erected, and a loud hoarse voice addresses them from the deep 
recesses of the wood, telling them certain things they must not do, 
upon the penalty of being seized by the evil demon, or spirit, and 
hung upon the cross to be an example to others. These instruc- 
tions, as might have been expected, are of a purely selfish character, 
having reference to themselves and their own tribe. 

After any one has been initiated into these gri-gri mysteries, and 
ofi'ends the chiefs, they are liable to be taken into the devil-bush, 
from which they never return. Nor dare any one ask, " Where is 
he ?" " The devil has taken him," ends all further inquiry or hope, 
and his friends must not mourn for him. If a chief sutlers in this 
way, his people and his wives must suffer along with him, unless by 
timely notice from the priest, they desert the doomed one, and attach 
themselves to another chief or tribe before the arrival of the day of 
execution. 

When Bob Gray, chief at Grand Bassa, sold the devil-bush, which 
now forms a part of the settlement of Edina, to tlie Agent of the 
American Colonization Society, the whole surrounding tribes were 
about to arm against him for his impiety, and he had to pay a heavy 
fine, as well as solicit the protection of the colony to save his head. 

The .Methodist church now stands not far from the spot where the 
blood of the victims of their superstition and cruelty has flowed pro- 
fusely. Many a wretch has been dragged into the depths of that 
forest gloom never to return. 

The superstitions of the African tribes seem to be the operation 
of a wild veneration manifested in the form of vague fears of some 
evil influence being continually impending over them, which they try 
to obviate by the performance of some ridiculous mummeries, and 
suspending round their persons their gri-gris. Out of this feelinii 
ar'ses the common belief in If ilchcrafl, and the overwhelming super- 
stiuous credulity which everywhere prevails, aflbrding to the priests 
immense power over the inhabitants. Dark and magical rites, 
uumberless ineantaticns and barbarous cusioms, are contijiualiy 



72 Wilchcrajt. 

prartiseil, and in tlie power of which the people liave unhounded 
confidence; and such is their influence upon tlie general mind, that 
they are accompanied hy all tlie terrors that the dread of a malignant 
being and tlie fear of unknown evil can invest liieni. 

In the attempts to bewitch any one, the usual mode of operation is 
said to be, to take a gourd or vessel, containing, among other in^iredi- 
ents, a combination of difl'ereut colored rags, cats' teeth, parrots' 
feathers, toads' feet, eggshells, fishbones, snakes' teeth, and liz- 
zards' tails. This is secretly placed near the dwelling of the person 
intended to be brought under its influence, and upon whom the ope- 
rator wishes to inflict an injury. Terror immediately seizes the 
individual, and either by resigning himself to despair, or by the 
secret communication of poison, in most cases, death is the inevitable 
consequence. 

Upon the death of any one, therefore, suspicion is excited that he 
has been bewitched or poisoned, by some one, and the friends inva- 
riably institute an inquiry into the question of who had '^made 
iriich" for the deceased. The power of determining this question 
rests with tlieir priests, and of course constitutes one of the chief 
sources of tlieir influence over the people. TJie instances of cruelty 
growing out of these trials are frequent and horrible. A certain 
number of witnesses are selected, and every individual who can be 
an object of suspicion is required to plunge his hand into a pot of 
boiling oil. If innocent, it is alleged, he suflers no pain; if guilty, 
his hand is severely burnt. Should the person thus found guilty, 
assert his innocence, he is subjected to another, and what everybody 
reirards as a sure and infallible test, that is to swallow a strong and 
large potation of sass-ivood. It either produces death, or violent and 
distressing vomiting. The quantity of the tea, says the Rev. J. L. 
"Wilson, 183G, that is given to the man. when his accusers are bent 
on his destruction, is altogether incredible — enough, were there no 
poisonous qualities in if, to destroy the life of any one. Several 
deaths occurred from this practice, near Mr. Wilson's station, but 
he finally succeeded in putting a stop to such glaring injustice and 
cruelty. 

iJut this cruel mode of trial is still prevalent outside of the colonies 
and mission stations. The journal of the Rev. Mr. Payne, of the 
Protestant l-^piscopal Mission, Dec. 9, 18J8, records the death of 
three women, in rapid succession, from this ordeal, who had been 
accused of causing the death of a man wounded in battle. Upon 
Mr. Payne remonstrating strongly and endeavoring to put a stoj) to 
the work of death, tjie chief accosted him thus : " Payne, what 
kind of a man are you ? We are trying to rid ourselves of the 
witches who have caused our late reverses, and you are angry ? 
We verily thought the dcija, who declared these women to be 
»vitihes, lied; but, behold, on trial, all prove guilty!!" "Alas," 
adds Mr. J'ayne, "for a iiloody superstition which receives new 
sireniJlh frcun every additional victim ! Help Lord, for vain is the 
lielp of man." 

'J'lie lascs arising binder this means of detccliiig supposed criiur 



Polygamy. 73 

innls are numerous, one only, in addition, -will be presented. The 
Liberia Herald, 18-14, says, "Directly after the death of King Shaka, 
of the Galliiias, a secret inquisiUon was set on foot to ferret out the 
ivitch-man. For a long time the senroh was fruitless ; at length a 
ffri-gri man, by continued incantations and daring diabolical com- 
munications, succeeded, and the hapless regicide was brought to 
light. Confronted with his accuser, he protested that he was inno- 
cent — the doctor protested he was guilty, and the all-discovering 
ordeal was resorted to, to decide the question. Of course the man 
was condemned to die, and as King Shaka was big king too much — 
the severity of the punishment was pro{)ortioned to the dignity of 
the deceased. Sentence was pronounced and thus executed — the 
man was taken to the mouth of the river, his tongue cut out, and he 
thrown alive to the sharks. 

" This ordeal," continues the Herald, " is a most powerful engine 
of state policy in Africa. It is the right arm of an African monarch. 
He has only to keep on terms with the doctors or gri-gri men, who 
are the constituted inquisitors, and nothing is easier than to rid him- 
self, at any time, of a dangerous or aspiring subject. Whether the 
ordeal be the sassy water, the boiling oil, or the heated iron, they 
are never at a loss for means to produce any result they wish. If it 
be the first process, they weaken or strengthen the decoction, and 
increase or lessen the quantity so as to render it innocent or fatal, 
just as interest or inclination may lead. If the second or third, they 
can, b}' previous application of some preparation to the part to be 
operated upon, enable it, for a short time, to resist the efiect of heat; 
and then, by hurrying the ordeal, the accused escapes unscathed. 
If they conclude to murder the victim, they reverse the operation, 
and guilt is as clear as noonday. Thus this system puts the life of 
the whole community in the hands of tliis class of men, and renders 
it a formidable fraternity of conjurers." 

Polygamy, says the Rev. J. L. Wilson, 1834, is universal. A 
man's importance in society is according to the number of his wives. 
These are regarded as his property, and in reality are his servants. 
They are usually purchased at a very early age. One of the wives 
in any family is the mistress of the others, and is honored by them 
as such. They are all in strict subjection to their husbands, and not 
unfrequently are severely chastised for the slightest oflense. 'i'he 
women perlbrm all the drudgery. At the age of about twelve the 
females are taken to the dev'd-bush, and retained for something like 
two years. They are under the care of the grand devil-man, who, 
at stated times, rushes out into the midst of them, and utters his ora- 
cles. They are induced to believe that he is a supernatuval being, 
and his dress and manner both confirm it. So far as the object of this 
confinement could be learned, it was to prepare them for the duties 
of lile — one of the chief of which is to make a full and unreserved 
communication of everything they may know to their husbands. 

In 1839, Mr. Burgess, writing from Zanzibar, on the cast coast of 
Africa, says, "That in all the tribes bigamy was common. No 
sacredness was attached to the marriage relation. They retain tlicir 



74 Slavery. 

wives as long as they nrc pleased with them, and ihen sell them. In 
some tribes one man would have from one to twenty wives. Tiie 
Manomoisies sometimes have as high as eiglity. Wives are bou<iht 
and sold. 'l"he females do the work ; men work till they obtain 
wherewith to buy a wife, then woik no more, only trade and fijjhl." 

It has been stated alreaily, that tiie king of Ashantee, 1819, kept 
three thour«and three hundred and thiriy-three wives. All the female 
sex is considered as at the king's disposal, says JMr. Bowditeh, and 
an annual assemblage takes place, w hen, having m<ide a large selec- 
tion for bimsell', he distributes the remainiler among his grandees, 
who are bound to receive them with tiie humblest gratitude. 

Tiie number of wives possessed liy the king of Dahomey equalled 
those of the king of Ashantee. The stoutest of them, says JMr. 
Uowditch, were enrolled into a military regiment, regularly irained 
to the use of arms, under a female general and subordinate officers; 
and according to the testimony of several Europeans, went tlirough 
the exercise with great precision. Governor Abson was present 
at Abomey when the king marched against the Eyoes, on which 
occasion he was attended by a body guard of eight hundred women. 

English papers, for May, 1849, brought us some details of recent 
negotiations by an English agent, witli the king of D Uiomey, fiom 
which we learn that the number of his armed women is near six 
thousand at present. They consiiiute his body guard, and never 
leave him, and are answerable for the safety of his person. 

It was the boast of the king of Eyeo, that his queens, linked hand 
in hand, would reach from one end of the kingdom to the other. 
These women, says Mr. Hou ditch, act as the king's body-guards, 
))erform the most menial offices, and are seen in every pan of the 
kintnlom, carrying on their heads heavy i)urdens from place to place, 
favored only with an exemption from ordinary toil. 

But we nc('A\ not multiply quotations. Enough is given to prove 
lliat one of the greatest evils which can mar the social condition of 
any people — polygamy — prevails to a vastly greater extent in AlVica 
than in any other portion of the world. 

Next in order comes the domestic alaveri/ of Jlfricu. In addition 
to the degrading customs and cruel supert-tidons, which cannot 
have had their origin in the slave trade, slavery, to a friL'hilul 
extent, exists in Africa, :ind the wars and demoralization prodiu-eil 
by ambition or the hope of making prisoners, for slaves, and lo 
secure plunder, wouM still continue if slavery in all the world 
liesidc were aliolished. On this suliject the materials are ample, 
hut we must limit ourselves to some of tlie more prominent f.icts. 
'J'his view was forced upon the mind of IJurkhardt, the African 
traveler, who, on coni-lnding his labors, says, "Europe will have 
done hut little for the blacks, if the abolition of the Atlantic slave 
trade, which is trillini: compared with tlie slavery of the interior, is 
not followed up by some wise and grand plan, tending to the civil- 
ization of the continent." 

Mr. Hurgess, writing fronj Zanzibar, on the eastern coast of Africa. 



Slavery. 75 

says tliat "slavery is common in all the tribes. They buy their 
own people. Some Manoinoisies own lour or five hundred slaves." 

Major Denhain, the English traveler, stales, that on the occasion 
of the marriage of the shiek of Bornou with the daughter of the sultan 
of Mandara, a combined expedition was sent against the Musgow 
nation, which, after a desperate struggle, brought in three thout^and 
slaves ; and the nuptials were celebrated with barbaric pomp, fur- 
nished out of the tears and captivity of so many victims,'" 

'i'he Major further states, tliat, " For the last eight years the shiek. 
of Bornou has carried on a very desperate and bloody war with the 
sultan of Begharmi, who governs a powerful and warlike people, 
inhabiting a very larfje tract of country south of Bornou, and on the 
eastern bank of the Shary. Although meeting with some reverses, 
and on one occasion losing his eldest son in the wars, who was 
greatly beloved by the people, he has, ujion the whole, been success- 
ful : and is said to have, from the first to the last, destroyed and led 
into slavery more than tliirty thousand of the sultan of Begharmi's 
subjects, besides burning his towns and driving ofl" his flocks." 

Kano, the capital of a province of the same name, and one of the 
principal towns ol' the kingdom of Soudain, has a population of froai 
thirty to forty thousand inhabitants. Of these, according to Captain 
Clapperton, who visited it, more than half are slaves. The sale 
and purchase of slaves is as common as the sale or transfer of any 
other species of property. He describes the slave market as very 
extensive. 

Even the wives of the kings, as already stated, are no better tlian 
slaves, in the common and harshest acceptation of the word ; and as 
the pomp of the sovereign consists principally in the multitude of 
his wives, it is easy to conceive the numbers of one class alone who 
are reduced to servitude. 

Dr. Goheen, the very intelligent and successful physician to the 
African mission of the Methodist Episcopal Church of the United 
States, after more than a year's residence in Liberia, thus writes; 

" Slavery in the United States, iir its worst form, and under the 
lash, is not as bad as slavery here in its mildest form. It is a well 
known truth, that in Western Africa nine-tenths of the whole popu- 
lation are in a state of slavery. The females are all sold at an early 
age, to be, when they grow up, wives, or beasts of burden, as their 
proprietors may require. If the majority here were not slaves, how 
would they ever get into the foreiijn slave dealers' hands ? Tiiey 
are sent in hundreds from the interior to the slave-factories and sold. 
Tliey are not deprived of their liberty when they leave these siiores — 
they only change masters. Slaves they are, and such they have 
been to the most savage rulers, who inflict upon them the severest 
punishments, and feel free to kill, to eat, or to throw them alive upon 
the funeral pile, at pleasure. Slavery in the United States, tliouo:h 
an evil, cannot possibly be as great a one as it is here. Here is the 
country where slavery, with all its legitimate and concomitant hor- 
rors exists. Africa is the mother that clings to it as her only, her 
dearest offspring. And here is the country so deeply dyed in the 



TO 7'ijranni/, Cruellies, Jf'ars. 

sin of slavery as to require all the Abolitionists and all the Coloniza- 
lionisls. and their united means and labors for centuries, in clearing 
its skirts and removing the foul stains that make her the prize money 
of other nations." 

'J'he testimony in relation to the domestic slavery of Africa miglil 
be greatly amplified, and the truth of the proposition, that it would 
continue, though slavery in all the world beside were abolished, be 
more fully proved, but what has already been presented is deemed 
quite sullicient for our purpose. 

The evils arising from the tyranny, cruelties, and wars of Africa, 
iiave been incidentally presented, in tlie course of our investigations, 
and we shall not dwell ujion them at length, though volumes might 
be filled with details of the most shocking character. 

The Rev. J. L. Wilson, 1839, says, "Only a few years since, the 
king of Ashantee sent the governor of Cape Coast sixty jaw bones 
of human victims which he had killed, as an evidence of his despotic 
power, thinking at the same time it would prove to be a present of 
great value. The king of Ashantee thinks as little of taking oif the 
heads of his subjects as those of his chickens." 

The Rev. Mr. Shrewsbury, an English missionary in South 
Africa, 1829, thus describes a native chief, recently deceased. "His 
cruelties almost exceeded belief; he rioted in blood ; and never had 
higher enjoyment than when killing his own subjects. ^Yhen his 
mother died, immense numbers of his people were summoned to- 
gether to weep, and the mourning was appointed to continue three 
days and nights. Every artifice was made use of to provoke sorrow, 
and cause the tears to flow; but it was impossible for the multitude 
to continue weeping constantly ; and yet, when any one did not shed 
what the tyrant considered a sufiicient quantity of tears, he was in- 
stantly despatched for want of affection to his mother's memory. In 
the course of those three davs three hundred persons are said to have 
been put to death. And whenever a man was killed, his wife or 
wives, and all his children were destroyed on the same day." 

'I'lie Rev. Mr. Champion, missionary in King Dingaan's country, 
South Africa, says, 183G, "'J'he king holds his eminence by many 
customs that are in vogue. lie eats the first green corn, and at the 
celebration calls all the nation together to dance before him. Sugar- 
cane, sweet potatoes, and such like, are cultivated and reserved for the 
king. No one can sit in a chair but the king. One of his captains 
was here not long since, who was afraid even to sit on a bo.\, lest he 
should resemble the king. Blankets, except the very meanest de- 
scription, are royal ones. For the common people to obtain and 
wear them would be instant death. Anything at all line goes lo ilu; 
king, and for others to wear or use them is to aspire to be like the 
king. The ivory comes all to the king, and for this purjiose he 
Bends out many men to hunt elephants. With the teeth he obtains 
of the whiles presents of beads, cloths, &;c., which he bestows on 
his immense family and his favorite captains. When they return from 
war, all the cattle are driven lo the chief town as the king's property. 



Tyranny, Cruellies, Tl'ars. 77 

Some he bestows on the brave and on hi? generals, but the many are 
reserved to increase his immense herds and for slavighler. 

" He lias another stern grasp on his people, in that punishment 
which is indicted for small as well as great offenses. A word that 
bears in any way against the king, or is suspected even, and the die 
is cast, the man is counted for dead. A captain is killed, and often 
his famdy and dependents follow him. 'J'he king wishes perhaps 
to sliovv his power, and to see spoils coming in from slaughter, and 
he sends, as laiely, and in one night, after by stratagem he had col- 
lected all at home, cuts off a rich country of his own tribe or his own 
subj. CIS. 

"Cases of individuals put to death are almost always occurring. 
The people are shy to tdk about the subject, after they have told 
yoii it was by order of the king. It is almost always because they 
are alleged to have done something wrong, but where or when, no 
one knows; oidy when reasoned into a corner, they say the king 
knows. Always it is, yes, father, it is all right — when even son, 
mother, father, or brother is slain." 

Iiifmticiiie of a peculiar nature prevails in Africa: twins are never 
allowed to live. As soDn as they are born, they are put into two 
earthen pots and exposed to beasts of the Ibrest; and the unfortunate 
mother ever afterward endures great trouble and hardships. 

The exposure of the aged and infirm, says Mr. Moflat, after they 
are incapable of supporting themselves, is common. They are left 
in desert places, with an allowance of food and water to subsist them 
for a time, after which, if not sooner devoured by beasts of piey, 
they are suffered to perish of hunger. . 

"Another sanguinary custom grows out of the superstitions vene- 
ration of the Atricans for the shaik. The person upon whom snspi- 
cion of Clime has fallen, is ordered by the king to swim across the 
river, when, if innocent, he is expected to arrive safe upon the other 
side; but if otherwise, the sharks are to h;ive him for breakfast. 
'I'he trial takes place, says Dr. Porter, before his majesty and an 
immense concourse of people; the suspected person is brought forth 
and forced into the river, when the poor victim makes every exertion 
to reach the destined goal, but. strange to say, the king has never yet 
left the beach without being fully convinced of the truth of his sus- 
picions, as no instance is on reccu'd of the sharks ever allowing him 
to be in the wrong." 

'J'iie testimony already adduced, proves that many of the sanguinary 
wars of Africa have their origin in other causes than the stimulus fur- 
nished by the slave trade. Were additional testimony needed in 
proof of this point, much is afforded in Moflat's Southern Africa. 
The writer, long a resident missionary, and an active agent in many 
of the scenes described, has given the world a work of great interest 
and value. The army of forty thousand Mantatees, who approached 
and attacked the tribes in which Mr. Moffat was laboring, were 
themselves refugees, robbed of their cattle and driven from their 
homes, by superior force, and compelled, in turn, to rob others, that 
they themselves might live. Having heard that there were immense 



78 Canuibalism. 

flocks of sheep at the Eiifrlish coh)ny at the Cape, which they wished 
to possess, they were fighting their way in that direction, when 
compelled to change their course by the valor of the better armed 
forces which they encountered. They do not seem to have had any 
connection whatever with the slave trade. 

'J'he Rev. Dr. Philip says, that king Moselekatse, wlio had de- 
scended on the tliiokly-peopU'd regions of the north, like a sweeping 
pesiilence, capturing thousands of slaves, and leaving in his course 
nothing but dilapidated walls and heaps of rubbish, mingled with 
human bones and skulls, had never traded in slaves. The cruelties 
of the iMatebele nation, of which Moselekatse was king, is thus 
depicted by Mr. Moffat, and will furnish an appropriate conclusion 
to these investigations. "Nothing less than the entire subjugation, 
or destruction of the vanquished, could quench their insatiable thirst 
for power. Thus, when they conquered a town, the terrified inhab- 
itants were driven in a mass to the outskirts, when the parents and 
all the married women were slaughtered on the spot. Such as had 
dared to be brave in the defense of their town, their wives and their 
children, were reserved for a still more terrible death ; dry grass, 
saturated with fat, was tied around their naked bodies and then set on 
fire. The youths and girls were loaded as beasts of burden, with 
the spoils of the town, to be marched to the homes of their victors. 
Il" the town was in an isolated position, the helpless infants were left 
to perish either with hunger, or to be destroyed by beasts of prey. 
On sucli an event tlie lions scent the slain and leave their lair; the 
hyenas and jackalls emerge from their lurking places in broad day, 
and revel in the carnage; while a cloud of vultures may be seen, de- 
scending on tbe living and the dead, and holding a carnival on human 
flesh. Should a suspicion arise in the savage bosom that these 
helpless innocents m<iy fall into the hands of friends, they will pre- 
vent this by collecting them into a fold, and after raising over them 
a pile of brushwood, apply the flaming torch to it, when the town, 
out lately the scene of mirth, becomes a heap of ashes." 

In relation to ihccanniba^hm of Africa, a subject so revolting, we 
will not be expected to give many details. Of the existence of this 
practice there can be no doubt. 'J'he annual report of the American 
Colonization Society, 1828, contains the following statement: 

" The most fierce and atrocious conflicts, instigated by slave 
traders, have prevailed during the last two years, among the tribes in 
the vicinity of Monrovia. The crime of cannibalism, shocking, it 
may be supposed, even to barliarous natures, has been perpetrated 
during these wars. On the capture of a small town among the (to- 
talis by the Deys, thirty victims were sacrificed to this detestable 
praflicc." 

Many are the witnesses who have borne testimony to the general 
prevalence! of cannibali>m over large districts of Africa, Very recent 
reports of scienlilic exploring companies sent out fnmi France, also 
five punieient evidence tn prove the truth of the previous reports, 
iea\ingns under the painful necessity of believing that all that has 
been said of cannibalism in Africa is true. — See Apjycvdiv. 



Tlie Slave Trade. 79 

As stated in the outset, the object of tlic investigations of the sub- 
jects coming under our first head, has been to show the true state of 
Africa's social and moral condition, independent of the shive tra(h^ ; 
and to prove that even if it were possible to break up that trallic bv 
other means than coh)nization, but little would be gained to the cause 
■of humanity and little good accomplished for Africa. And have we 
not succeeded ? Have not facts enough been given, to prove that 
Africa's degradation is complete — that if the slave trade were this 
hour annihilated, and all the evils which we have enumerated as 
not dependent upon the slave trade still existing, the social and 
moral condition of that continent would demand the utmost efforts 
of Christians everywhere for its recovery from the horrors of 
barbarism. 

It might, by some, have been supposed that the catalogue of woes 
oppressing Africa, and belonging legitimately to herself, were 
enough to alone for her iniquities. But no : such heaven-daring 
violations of divine law, such impious disregard of the principles of 
justice and humanity, could not escape the indignation of the 
Almighty. The sufferings of wicked men, the consequence of their 
own transgressions, can never jnake atonement for their sins. There 
is no principle of God's moral government of nations, that will per- 
mit the stay of execution of judgment for transgression, but upon 
repentance. Africa liad not repented, but was adding iniquity unto 
iniquity. Justice, therefore, cried for vengeance, and the slave traders, 
resembling more the demons of tlie lowest pit than men, were let 
loose upon tliis doomed people, to involve the oppressor and the 
oppressed in one common ruin. 

We shall see, however, before we close, that mercy zvas mingled 
ivith judgment. And we shall find that in the history of the African 
slave trade, and the events connected with it, we have another illus- 
tration of the truth of the proposition, that when God lias designs of 
mercy toward a wicked people, the judgments with which he visits 
them for their sins, are adapted to secure their repentance and lead 
them back to Himself. 

n. The Modifications which have been produced on the Social and 
Moral Condition of Africa by the Slave Trade. 

Until introduced by the Moors, it appears that the trading in slaves 
was little known to the inhabitants of the interior of Africa. The 
prisoners taken in battle were reduced to slavery by the captors, and 
formed the marriage portions given to their children. It seems that, 
in general, they were humanely treated, excepting when the cruelties 
of their superstitions led to opposite results. It is, says Denham and 
Clapperton, to the pernicious principles of the Moorish traders, whose 
avaricious brutality is beyond all belief, that the traffic for slaves in 
the interior of Africa not only owes its origin, but its continuance. 
The eagerness of the interior population to possess the alluring articles 
of merchandize offered, tempted them to sell their slaves, while the 
enormous profits on their sale, in the cities along the Mediterranean 



ao 77/e .Slave 2'rade. 

caused the Moorish traders to refuse to receive anything in exchange 
lor their goods but slaves. 

Oa llie western coast of Africa, as briefly detailed iii our foiinor 
lecture, the slave trade was commenced by tlie Portutjuese. For a 
long series of years the supply was obiained by forcibh' seizins the 
natives, and confining them on board their vessels, until a suflicient 
number for a cargo were obtained. This pracnice, though inconsid- 
erable at its commencement, became general, says Rees' Cyclopaedia, 
and was prosecuted by Portuguese, Spaniards, French, English, 
Dutch, &.C. The wretched inhabitants were tlius diiven from the 
coast and compelled to take refuge in the interior. But the Euro- 
peans still pursued them, entering their rivers, and thus penetrating 
the heart of tlie country, 'i'he increased demand for slaves, how- 
ever, soon became so great as to require a less precarious mode of 
securing a supply. Accordingly, forts and factories were established, 
merchandize landed, and endeavors made, by a peaceable department, 
by presents, and by every appearance of nmnilicence, to allure the 
aitaehment and confidence of the Alricans. 

'I'hese tradickers were not long in discovering the chiefs or kings 
of the African tribes, and making treaties of peace and commerce, by 
which it was agreed that prisoners of war and convicts for crimes 
should be sentenced to European servitude; and that the Europeans 
should, in return, supply the kings with the hixin-ies of the norlli. 
These treaties were immediately carried into ellect, and the teirible 
consequences which might have been anticipaied were soon developed. 
Indeed, there can be no doubt but that the results were foreseen by 
the traders, and this scheme of extending their oj)erations, seemingly 
under tlie sanctions of justice, was thrown before the world, in this 
plausible firm, to prevent Uie indignant frown of pnblic sentiment 
from proliibiting the further prosecution of the liaHic in slaves. 

Tiie nundjer of persons convicted of crimes, fell so far short of the 
wants of the slave traders, that other means had to be adoptt^d to aug- 
ment their numbers. Not only those fairly convicted of crime were 
now sentenced to slavery, but even those who were suspected; and 
with regard to prisoners of war, they delivered into slavery, hot only 
those who were taken in a state of public enmitv and injustice, but 
those also who were taken in the arbitrary skirmisiies of the venal 
sovereigns of Africa. Wars were made among the tribes near the 
coast, not as formerly, from motives of retaliation and defense, or 
from love of conquest, but foi; the sake of obtaining prisoners alone, 
and the advantages resulting from the sale of them. When a Euro- 
pean sliip came in sight, this was considered as a nu)tive for war, and 
a signal for the commencement of hostilities. 'J'he desjiouc sove- 
rci<;ns of Africa, influenced by the venal motives of European traflic, 
first made war upon the iiei:ilil)oring tribes in the violation of everv 
principle of justice; and if tliey did not thus succeed in their main 
object, they turned their arms against their own subjects. 'I'he first 
villages at which they arrived were inimedialdy surrounded, and 
aJlcrward set on fire; and tlie wreichcd inhabitanls seized, as they 
ivcffi escaping from ihe llames. 



The Slave Trade. 81 

In a few years the traffic in slaves became systematizeil, and the 
residents remaining akiny' the coast became tiie regular agents between 
(he slave merchants and the tribes in the interior, who were better 
able to procure slaves to send to the ports where they were in de- 
mand. The slave trade was thus gradually extended from the Atlantic 
and Pacific coasts into the interior, by Europeans, as it had been from 
the Mediterranean by the Moors, and it has been no uncommon 
occurrence for the slaves sold to the traders on the Atlantic coast, to 
have been brought from the interior a distance of 700 miles. 

The influence of this horrible traffic upon Africa was most perni- 
cious. Deploral)le as was the social condition of her people, inde- 
pendent of the slave trade, it would seem, at first view, to have been 
rendered infinitely worse by it. 

On this occasion, however, time will not allow us to present the 
wide range of facts which we have been able to collect upon this 
brancli of our subject. At present we can only remark, that from the 
testimony of many witnesses — embracing travelers in Africa, and 
missionaries, and colonists — it appears that the slave trade, besides 
vastly aggravating some of the social evils previously existing, and 
greatly multiplying the causes of war among the different tribes, has 
exerted a paralyzing effect upon the little agricultural industry which 
previously existed ; and that there is less of social happiness and less 
of personal enjoyment in the districts where the traffic prevails,,, than 
in the interior where its influence has not so fully reached ; and fur- 
ther, that the king of Dahomey is at present largely engaged in sup- 
plying the slave traders with slaves, amounting to the number of 
30,000 annually, to obtain which he makes annual slave hunts, the 
dangers of which he himself shares. 

One case only we shall present, and of recent occurrence, to afford 
an idea of the cruelties practised at the depots for slaves on the coast, 
where they are collected for transportation ; and to present a well- 
attested account of the horrible atrocities to which the slave trade 
leads tliose who are enlisted in it. 

In July, 1842, Rev. J. L. Wilson visited a slave factory on the 
Gaboon, to inspect its condition. On his arrival at the gate of the 
barracoon, which was an enclosure of more than an acre, the slaves 
were talking and laughing cheerfully, but the moment the gate opened, 
the most profound silence ensued, and they became terrified, suppos- 
ing tliat a victim was to be selected to be eaten. Among the slaves 
were persons of both sexes, from five to forty years of age, not one 
of the number having any covering. Most of the men were fastened 
two and two, one ankle of each being fettered. The women, girls, 
and half-grown boys were made secure by a brass ring encircling the 
neck, through which a chain passed, grouping them together in com- 
panies of forty or fifty each. Boys and girls under ten jears of age 
were left unshackled. 'J'he poor wretches had to sleep on bamboo 
platforms arranged round the building, without any covering to protect 
them from the cold and the musquitoes, both of which were intolera- 
ble to persons in their situation at that season of the year. 

"But there was one company v.hich particulailv arrested mv 
6 



82 The Slave Trade. 

atleiuion — afTccted my heart. It was made up of mothers who liad 
recently been bereft of their chihh-en. How they came to be chained 
together, I cannot tell, unless their keepers, yielding to what they 
considered an innocent and harmless desire, allowed them to be drawn 
together by their sympathies and sorrows. 

"Their owner knew, perhaps, what had become of tlieir children, 
but lie was unallected by the reminiscence. Not so with them. 
Their countenances indicated an intensity of anguish that cannot be 
described. Though heathen mothers, a flame had been kindled in 
their hearts wliich no calamity could extinguish. 

" When infants are born in the barracoon, or when they are brought 
there with their mothers — because it is inconvenient to keep them in 
the factory, and almost impossible to carry them across the ocean — 
they are subjected to a premature and violent death. I speak 
advisedly, when I afiirm, that this is a common occurrence in the ope- 
rations of the skive trade; and it was in this way, I was credibly 
informed, th.it these sorrowing females had been sundered from their 
offspring. * ^ * I ](>ft \\^^^^ barracoon with my curiosity amply 
satisfied, and with emotions which will never allow me to visit 
anotlier." 

The horrors of the middle passage, as the transportation of the 
slaves from the ports in Africa, to the countries where they ai-e sold, 
is called, are so well known to every reading man, that I shall only 
present one instance of the revelations made by the capture of a 
slaver, with the view of ailbrdiiig an idea of the capacity of our Libe- 
ria colony to receive and provide for emigrants who may land u[)on 
its territory. 

The Pons, a slave ship on the coast of Africa, was captiired by an 
American vessel, in December, 18-15, and her cargo of slaves landed 
at Monrovia, and provided for by the Liberians. !She had eight iiun- 
dred and sixty-six slaves on board, eighteen of whom died dining the 
night after the capture. The vessel had no slave decks, and these 
poor vvretciies were almost literally piled in bulk on the water casks 
below. As the ship appeared to be less than three hundred tons, it 
seemed impossible that one-half could have lived to cross the Atlantic. 
Forty-five or fifty of the number were females, who were confined in 
the round-house cabin on deck. Notwithstanding this crowded state 
of the vessel, it had been the intention of the captain to take on boanl 
an ailditional four hundred slaves. The stench from below was so 
great, says Capt. Hell, that it was impossible to stand more than a few 
moments near the hatchways. The men who went below from tniri- 
osily, were forced up sick in a few minutes, when all the hatcties 
were off. What must liave been the sull'eriugs of these poor slaves 
when the hatches were closed? "I am informed," says Capt. IJell. 
•' that very dfien, in these cases, the stronger will strangle the weaker ; 
and that this was probably the reason so many died, or rather were 
found dead, on the morning after the capture. None Itut an eye wit- 
ness can form a conception of i\\v. horrors these poor creatures endure 
in tlieir irarisii across the ocean." 

The vessel was fourteen davs in reaching Monrovia, during which 



The Slave Trade. 83 

time one hundred and fifty died. "When they were landed," says 
the Liberia Heraki, " nearly the whole population collected on the 
beach to witness the sight. The colonists, with the exception of a 
very few, had never witnessed such a spectacle before. The slaves 
were much emaciated, and so debilitated that many of them found 
dilHcidt]' in getting out of the boats. Such a spectacle of misery ai;d 
wretchedness, inflicted by a lawless and ferocious cupidity, so ex- 
cited our people that it became unsafe for the captain of the slaver, 
who had come to look on, to remain at the beach. Eight slaves 
died in the harbor the day before they were landed. The prize 
master says, as soon as a slave became helpless through debility or 
sickness, those nearest would throttle him, in order that his bodv 
removed, they would have more room. They were all, men aiul 
women, with the exception of two or three called headmen, landed 
in a state of perfect nudity ! " 

Dr. Lugenbeel, the United States' agent, immediately put them all 
out among the people of Liberia as apprentices. The Methodist 
mission took charge of eighty boys and twenty girls. The education 
of many of them has been progressing well, and a number of them 
are at present, 1849, members of the church, and rejoicing in the 
faith of the gospel. Oh what a kind Providence to turn the captivity 
of these poor creatures into a blessing of inestimable value ! 

Since the employment of a naval force on the coast for the capture 
of slavers, many expedients are adopted by the heartless villians en- 
gaged in the slave trade to escape detection. One instance only 
need be noticed to give a true idea of the recklessness of life which 
prevails. In 1830, Captain Homans, having taken on board six 
hundred slaves, on the coast of Africa, set sail for Cuba, found him- 
self about being surrounded by four cruizers who had watched his 
movements. Favored by the darkness of the night, which soon set 
in, he extended a heavy chain cable around his vessel outside the 
railing, with a ponderous anchor attached, and bringing his slaves one 
by one on deck, by means of their handcuffs of iron he fastened 
them to tlie cable. The penwork of the hold and every thing that 
could create suspicion, was also brought on deck, bound in matting 
well filled with shot, and thrown overboard. The cable, by a single 
blow of the axe, was then cut loose, a heavy plunge was heard as the 
anchor reached the water, and a crash as the cable fell off the side, 
above which arose one terrible shriek — it was the last cry of the 
murdered Africans. One moment more, and all was still. Six hun- 
dred human beings had (jone down with that anchor and chain into 
the depths of the ocean. Two hours after daylight the captain was 
overhauled. There was no evidence that his vessel was a slaver, 
and her captors were obliged to let her pass. 

We have said that the slave trade did not originate the degradation 
into which Africa has been sunk, but that, though it aggravated many 
existino; evils, and introduced some new elements of woe, by arousing 
the cupidity of the inhabitants, yet it teas itself onli/ a legitimate fruit 
of the social and moral degradation previously existing on that 
continent. Listen to the reasons upon wliich we base our opinion. 



84 The Slave Trade. 

Africa, sunk in the frloom of the darkest suporstitions known to 
llie worlil, anil netrleoting all that industry which creates a surph.is 
of products to constitute the elements of a leoriiiniate commerce, 
and which secures to nations those comforts and luxuries not pro- 
duced in their own latitudes; when an intercourse with civilized 
countries was opened up, had not an adequate supply of a<rricultural 
fruits, or mineral wealth, to exchange for the European commodrties 
of which she found herself in want. This nejjlect of necessary labor 
on iier own soil, which was so well adapted to yield ahundainly tlie 
tropical products then hetrinning to be in demand in civilized coun- 
tries, lel't her but one resource to secure the articles she desired — 
and that resource rras the silling of human Jlesh! Alas, fur poor 
Africa! Human flesh was the only commodiiy which she coulil 
supply, in suHlcient quantity, to the commerce of the world. No 
proposition is more susceptible of demonstration than this, that the 
slave trade is a legitimate fruit of Jlfrica's degradation. Had 
she not rejected the gospel which once blessed her, and, as a neces- 
sary consequence, lost her industry and sunk into barbarism, she 
would not have been under the necessity of selling her children, nor 
would it have been possible to have persuaded her to adopt a measure 
so unnatural, so cruid, so inhuman, so infernal, and i'raught with such 
a deluge of woe. And there is but one way of suppressing the evils 
under which Africa groans, and that is, to restore to her that blessed 
gospel which she rejected, and that industry which she lost; ami 
then, the causes creating the slave trade being removed, that traf- 
fic itself must necessarily be annihilated, and Africa permanently 
redeemed. 

Had lime allowed the presentation of all the testimony collected 
in reference to the modilications produced upon the social and moral 
condition of Africa by the slave trade, the picture, though dark 
indeed, would have been faint when compared with the sad reality, 
and liujiled when contrasted with the vast extent of that tralllc and 
the agonizing suHerings which are its attendants. The slave trade, 
it wdl be perceived, had no tendency to check or suppress the 
domestic slavery of Africa, but made its perpetuation of greater im- 
portance as furnishing a principal means of keeping up the trallic 
with the slave trader, li has done nothing to break down the itlola- 
try, die devil-worship, the wilclicrafl, the ivrannv, and cruellies of 
Africa, which have deeply degraded her, imt has left these all un- 
cliansrtid. 'J'he tropical cultivation employing slave labor, makes a 
demand upon Africa chielly for males, and thus the slave trade, 
leaving an excess of females in that counlrv, has, no doul)t, increased 
polygamy, and the miseries growing out of that social evil. 'I'he 
slave trade did imt oriirinate the sanguinary wars of the powerful 
kings of the interior, who, actuated by aml)iiion of conquesi, or love 
of plunder, laid waste the weaker nations that surrounded tliiiii, 
Kirewintr the oarih with their corpses, that they might decorate llicir 
rude halls with skulls; but it has greatly inultij)lied the petty feuds 
of smaller irihcs and led the lander ones to make regular .slave hunts, 
to supi)ly the increasing demand for slave labor. And though tlie 



Religious Views of the Pilgrims. 85 

slave triide, by awakening tlie passion of avarice into a predominance 
over that of superstition, may have limited the number of human 
saeritices, it was but to prolong a life that it might be subjected to 
all the vicissitudes of foreign slavery. 

And thus, while the social and moral condition of Africa, inde- 
pendent of the slave trade, was truly deplorable, and sufiicient to 
rouse to action every man whose heart can sympadiize wiih human 
suffering, the slave trade rendered its condition still more dismal, 
making the call upon the Christian world for relief still more urgent. 

III. The relation which the slavery of the United Stales bears to 
the recovery of Africa from Barbarism. 

No great movements of mankind, either voluntary or compulsory, 
uprooting the population of one country and transplanting it into 
another, have ever occurred without producing important results, for 
good or for ill, to the people transferred and to the M'orld. The 
removal to North America of portions of the populations of Europe 
and Africa — the first voluntary, and the second compulsory — the one 
the most enlightened and upright of the human family, and the other 
the most ignorant and debased — the extremes of hunianitv — and 
their coalescence, upcn our soil, in the relation of master and slave, 
was one of those strange and incomprehensible events, the design 
of which cannot be fathomed by any depth of human wisdom and 
foresiijht, but can only be understood when time has wrought out 
its ultimate results. 

Our first settlers from Europe were the advocates of a Free Chris- 
tianity, who had been exiled by an intolerant zeal for religious 
uniformitv, and forced to flee from persecution to a land where they 
could obtain equal rights and liberty of conscience. No sooner had 
they become fairly seated in their wilderness homes, than they began 
to afford examples of the practical tendencies of their religious faidi, 
by attempting the education and conversion of the native Indians ! 
The substance of their religious belief, so far as it had a controlling 
Influence in modeling their course of policy, may be thus stated. 

'i'hey believed that man was originally created a pure and holy 
being, and in the possession of an extent of happiness that was only 
limited by his capacity for enjoyment; but that by an act of disobe- 
dience he lost his original purity of character, and involved himself 
and all his posterity in moral ruin, and thus the whole race fell 
under tlie condemnation of the lav/ of God, They believed, that 
all the ignorance, suffering, injustice, and oppression existing in the 
world are a necessary consequence of the depravity of men's heaits; 
and dial these evils must continue until mankind are brought back to 
their allegiance to God, and the rebel receives pardon and is released 
from the curse of the divine law. They believed, that notwithstand- 
ing man's transgression, "God so loved the world, that he gave his 
only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish 
but have everlasting life;" and that the Lord Jesus Christ, as the 
substitute for sinners, by his obedience, sufferings, and death, having 



86 Reluliuns of American Slavery , 

satisfieil the demands of divine justice and made an atonement lor 
sin, thus secured pardon, justification, and eternal life, for all who 
should believe in his name : but that those who believed not, must 
forever continue under condemnation and wrath. 'I'liey believed 
that human misery would disappear from earth, in the proportion 
that men could be persuaded to embrace the religion of Christ, and 
to conform their conduct to the teachings of his gospel; and that as 
soon as the whole world could be brought under the influence of that 
gospel, Humanity would dry up her tears and peace and joy become 
universal. Tiiey l)eliev('d that the command of the Saviour to his 
disciples, "Go ye into all tlie world, and preach the gospel to every 
creature," is as fully binding upon believers in after ages, as it was 
upon those to wliom it was at tirst delivered, and that the conse- 
quences which he declared should attend that preaching — "He that 
believeth and is baptized, shall be saved, and he that believcth not 
shall be damned" — will continue to accompany it to the latest 
generations of men ; and that, therefore, the responsibility of spread- 
ing the gospel as fully rests upon all believers, in all time, so far as 
their circumstances, pecuniary abilities, opportunities, talents, and 
spiritual gifts will allow, as it did upon Paul, when, in view of the 
sinfulness of men and their liability to wrath, he exclaimed, "for 
necessity is laid upon me ; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the 
gospel." 

Entertaining such views of their responsibilities to God and to 
man, the desire to promote the temporal and eternal interests of 
their posterity, and of the world, became a ruling principle of action 
with the first emigrants to New England. They commenced their 
labors on such a scale as their circumstances permitted, and in a 
few years mastered the language of the Indians, established schools 
for their education, and translated and printed the Bible in the native 
tongue, thus enabling the savage of the forest to read the words of 
eternal lile. Such was the spirit of the Pilgrims, and such the 
origin, in this country, of that Christian philanthropy whicli includes 
within its embrace the whole human family, and is now exerting its 
energies to give the gospel to the whole heathen world. 

The first of our supply of the population of Africa, drasrged from 
their homes by the promptings of avarice, to gratify an unhallowed 
commercial cupidity, were landed in the colony of Virginia in U)20, 
the same year in which the Puritan l*ilgiims landed at Plymouth. 
This is a remarkable coincidence. The first advocates ol" a Free 
( "bri.siianiiy, and the first African slaves who touched our coast were 
landed in the same year. 

In thus bringing logetlier darkness and light — in mingling tlie 
lowest form of Pagan ignorance and depravity with the hijihest 
develo]ftnent of Christian intelligence and integrity — it would seem 
that Divine Providence designed to demonstrate to the world the 
capal)ility of a Free Christianity lo transform the grossest material 
of luimanilu into the most refined, and thus to prove the unity 
aiyd nalural r(jit(diti) of the human race. 

Our investigations under this head have been directed, though but 



To Jifrican Civilization. 87 

incidentally, to the facts connected with the solution of this preat 
problem — ihe sufficiency of a pin-e ChriHlianihj to rexiore to man 
his lost happiness — with the view, principally, of pointing- out the 
relation which the slavery of the United States bears to the recovery 
of A.fri(!a from barbarism. 

'J'he best autliorities make the numher of slaves exported from 
Africa, lip to 1847, about seven millions eight hundred and forty-five 
thousand. Great as this number appears, the estimate is no doubt 
within the actual number of the viciims of the slave trade. And 
then, to have a proper conception of the extent of the sufferings 
following in the train of this traffic, it must be remembered, that the 
number of lives lost in Africa during the wars for the capture 
of slaves and their transportation to the coast, equals tlie numl)cr 
exported, making her entire loss fifteen millions six hundred and 
ninety tliousand human heings. This statement will give a jvist 
conception of the extent to which Africa has been robbed of her 
children. To obtain the facts which we need in our discussion, our 
plan has been to follow the more prominent lines along whicli the 
slave trade has borne the population of Africa, and ascertain what 
results have followed, in the several countries to which the African 
people have been taken, with the view of determining the intt-Uectnal 
and moral progress they may have m,ide, and the present qualifi- 
cations of each group to act as pioneers in the work of Africa's 
redemption. 

Passing by, for the present, those transported to the British West 
Indies, to Brazil, to Cuba and to Mexico, we find that those im- 
ported into the colonies now compijsing the United States, were 
very diflerently situated from each other and from their brethren 
left behind in the pagan darkness of Africa. A part of them fell 
into the hands of men, not so scrupulous, perhaps, as others of the 
colonists, on the subject of equal rights, but who, to say the least, 
were so far under the influence of Christian principle, tliat they 
deemed it an imperative duty to teach their households to read the 
Bible, and to instruct them in the principles of the Christian religion. 
The term household, according to their interpretation, included 
slaves. At that day apprentices were not masters in the shops 
where they learned trades, nor students sovereigns in colleges to 
which they were sent to be educated. The jutfgment of age was 
respected, because the experience of years was supposed to impart 
Avisdom. Implicit obedience to those in authority, whether parents, 
teachers, masters or magistrates, was demanded and yielded; and 
the consequence was, that while education enlightened the mind, and 
religious instruction moulded the heart, a generation of nitn were 
ushered upon the stage of action, with a love of order and suljuiission 
to law, as unalterable as was their hostility to despotism, and their 
determination to secure to themselves the rights of conscience, and 
the blessings of civil liberty — of liberty under the restraints of law. 
But while they rigidly held the doctrine of the natural equality of 
the Imman race, they as unchangeably believed that only mm 
(f intelligence and moral integrity are capable of self- government 



SS licluUons of American Slavery 

The scliool liouse and tlie cliiircli, tlie sources of iiitplligence and 
morality, willi lliem were objects of llie first importance, because tlie 
perpetuity of the free institutions they were founding would depend, 
they believed, not upon any magic in the mere possession of freedom, 
but in the intelligence and moral principle of their posterity. While, 
tlierel'ore, they labored for the intellectual and moral elevation of the 
Indian and the African, they refused to admit them to the privileges 
of citizenship. No morbid sentimentality upon the subject of equal 
rights could induce them to forget the peril into which they would 
cast the precious jewel of the elective franchise, by conferring it 
upon savage or half-civilized men, necessarily destitute of the ability 
through ignorance, of making a discreet use of the privilege. While, 
thin, they believed the savage man to be equal, by na!nre, with the 
civilized man, and that, by education, he could be made his equal, 
also, inieUectually and morally, unul thus ctlucaled and capalile 
of being controlled by moral principle, they woidd have conceived it 
to be madness to make the savage man the equal partner in com- 
mercial business with the civilized man, and much less would they 
have considered it a measure of safety to make him the equal in the 
administration of government. 

It was into the midst of such men as these, though contrary to the 
principles and wishes of the majority, and in opposition to their 
remonstrances and legislative enactments, that England forced the 
population of Africa. And, as if by an instinctive forecast, despotism 
seems to have anticipated the ellects, on this c(mtinent, of a Free 
Christianity, generating independence of thought, and demanding fur 
men equal rights and liberty of conscience, and souglit, by casting in 
a mass of ignorance from Africa, to retard if not to prevent the full 
development of these great principles. This disposition was clearly 
inilicated by the l']nolish statesman, who declared, as a sufficient rea- 
son for turning a deaf ear to the remonstrances of the Colonists against 
the further importation of slaves, that " Negroes cannot become 
Ik'ptiblicans — they will be a power in our hands to restrain the unruly 
Colonists." 

That such motives prompted England to prosecute the introduction 
of slaves into the colonies with great activity, was fidly believed by 
the American statesmen of the Revolution, and their views were thus 
enerirelically expressed, by INlr. Jell'crson, in the first draft of the 
Declaration of Independence, but which was afterward omitted : 

"He (the king of (Jreal Britain) has waged cruel war nLniinst 
human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and lil)erly 
in the persons of a distant people who never ofl'ended him, captivating 
and carrying them into slavery in anotlier hemisphere, or to incur 
miserable death in their transportation thither. 'J'his piratical war- 
faro, the o|iproi)ium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the Christian 
king of liritain. Determined to keep open a market where men 
should be bought and sold, he has prostituted his negative for sup- 
[iressing every legislative attempt to restrain this execrable commerce. 
And that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distin- 
guished dye, he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms 



To African CiviUzaiion. 80 

amon<^ ns, and purchase that liberty of which lie has deprived them 
by nuirderinj^ the people upon whom he has obtruded them : thus 
payinii off former crimes committed against the liberties of one people, 
by crimes which iie urges them to commit against the. lives of another." 

But that desire to impart the blessings of the gospel to their fellow- 
men, which had prompted that yet feeble colony to attempt the con- 
version of the Indians, could not but lead also to efforts for the elevation 
of the poor African slave. In accordance with this view, we find 
that the slaves were subjected, more or less, to the rules of their mas- 
ters' families, afforchng, to many of them, opportunities of iutelleclnal 
and moral improvement, which soon began to elevate tliem in the 
scale of being from that of the lowest state of barbarism, which tliey 
had occupied in Africa, to one of approximate civilization. Pious , 
ministers, also, being generally allowed free access to tlie slaves, 
obeyed the injunction to preach the gospel to every creature, and 
labored for their improvement and conversion. Thus nearly the 
whole mass of the victims of tiie slave trade, who were brouo^ht to 
the territory now forming the United States, were ultimately placed 
under circumstances which afforded to them advantages of infinite 
value, and from which, to this day, they might have been excludeil, 
had they not been brought from Africa. 

Many generations of men have been ushered into existence and 
disappeared again from the earth, while these causes have been in 
ojieration. Of the number of thousands of colored men wbo have 
lived, (hiring this period, embraced the gospel, and died in the hope of 
a l)lessed immortality, we can form no estimate. But the number of 
professors of religion of African descent, now living in the United 
States, may be estimated at nearly three hundred and fifty thousand. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church of the United States, many years 
since, commenced a systematic course of missionary labors among 
the colored people, but designed principally for the slaves. The 
Reports of this Church, for 1849, show that a large number of mis- 
sionaries are employed in this field, and give twenty-eight thousand 
five hundred and eighty-nine colored persons as members at the North, 
and one hundred and thirty-seven thousand five huiidred and twenlv- 
eiglit at the South. We find it stated in a southern paper, that the 
number of colored members, in the slave States, belonging to the 
Baptist Church, is over one hundred and twenty-five thousand, 'i'he 
Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and Associate Reformed Presbyterians, 
in the South, have also long been engaged in the religious training 
of the slaves, and have received many of them into church member- 
ship. At the present moment, the Sabbath schools of these seve- 
ral religious bodies are very extensive and very efiicieiit. The 
Cumberland Presbyterians, we understand, are not inattentive to the 
religions wants of tlie slave, but we are without statistics on the sub- 
ject of their operations. The number of colored members in the 
Baptist Cliurch at the North is not known to us, but mu?t amount to 
several hundreds. Our estimate of three liundred and fifty thousand, 
as the whole of the colored members of churches in the United Stales, 
is, therefore, probably not above the true number. 



90 Jactations of American Slavery 

But besides these pleasing results of the agencies accompanying 
slavery in tliis country, it must be added, that we have at present 
nboiit four hundred and sixty ihousani^ free persons of color, from 
whom the sliackles of slavery have fallen, and many of whom possess 
an amount of intelligence which inchcates, very plainly, lliat equal 
advantages only are needed to enable them to attain a high standard 
in all that adorns the character of the civilized and Christian man. 
And, in addition to all this, it must be noticed, that the whole colored 
population of the United States, which will number, in 1850, about 
three millions six hundred and ninety-seven thousand — though the 
standard of morality, witli the larger part, is known to be very low — 
may be said to be freed from tiie degrading influences of Afiican 
superstition and idolatry, and tiius made more accessible to the Chris- 
tian teacher. This result was greatly hastened by another most 
singular coincidence. Scarcely had the work of the religious train- 
ing of slaves been fairly undertaken, and its practicability determined, 
when the further influx of heathenism was prevented by the prohibi- 
tion of the slave trade, and the task of overcoming their pagan super- 
stitions and idolatrous customs was thus more easil)^ accomplished. 

IJut this does not yet complete the catalogue of good results accom- 
panying the transportation of the population of Africa to this country, 
in addition to the blessings of Christianity secured to them, in con- 
nexion with slavery, their captivity among us seems to have been but 
a preparatory step toward the development of another of the results 
to be produced in permitting the cupidity of the Christian world to 
make merchandise of the sons of Africa; and that result is their being 
constituted a distinct people, a civilized, enliglitened and powerful 
nation. The indications of this are umnistakeable. In the progress 
of inlelliL''encc among the Al'ricans of the United States, that passion 
for equal rights and privileges which characterized those who laid the 
foundations of American Independence, was also infused into their 
breasts, animating them likewise with the love of liberty and the 
determination to secure to themselves and their children the blessings 
of I'ree government. But being conscious of tiie secondary position 
wdiich llicy must necessarily occupy in the social relations of this 
country ; and in view also of tiie important fact, that the respect and 
esteem of the world could not be secured to the colored race short of 
the demonstration of their capacity for self-government; and knowing 
the impossibility of testing tlicU point where such a preponderance 
of whiles existed; and where, by the more rapid increase of the 
whites, by foreign immigration, the colored people must necessarily 
forever constitute a very small minority, and their influence scarcely 
be felt, excepting as their voles would be in demand during party con- 
tests : in view of these aud other considerations, after llie most mature 
deliberation, a lew colored men were led, thirty years ago, to accept 
the ])roposition of making a noble and daring effort for nationality in 
Africa ilscll', where eighty millions of llieir brethren might be civil- 
ized and incorporated with them, thus creating a government whoso 
jaimerical strengtli would be four-fold that of thu one they wonld 
leuvii. 



To Jlfricmi Civilization. Kl 

The oncouraging; succesf^ wliich luis crowned this enterprize of the 
colored people, is well known, and proves as fully that it is of God, 
as that our own happy Kepuldie was planted hy the right hand of die 
Alniighty, as a model to die world of the power of a free Chrislianiiy 
to promote human happiness. 'I'he Republic of Liberia, now nuni- 
beriiiij within its limits one luindred thousand souls, is but a trans- 
plantmeiit to Afiica of American civilization, American views of the 
rights of man, and American principles in relation to the freedom of 
religion. 'J'hese principles are already beginning to produce their 
ameliorating ellecls in Africa, and their power to elevate and ennoble 
n)aukind are becoming more and more manifest every day. It is a 
fart, now acknowledged in Europe and America, that the moral influ- 
ence already exerted by Liberia, has done more for the cause of 
humanity, in the suppression of the slave trade, and in the aboli- 
tion of slavery and the other evils afflicting Africa, than has been 
accomplished by the combined efibrts of tlie civilized world. 

We have now traced the prominent results following the enslave- 
ment of the Africans in the United States, until we have seen the tide 
of emigration begin to flow back from our shores to Africa, bearing 
her children to her again, not as received I'rom her, with minds dark- 
ened by heathenish superstitions, but, many of them, enlightened anil 
christianized men, able to bless her and redeem her. 'J'he plan of 
our investigations leads us to follow the other lines of dispersion of 
the population of Africa; to ascertain the results in other countries, 
with the view of determining the relation which tlie slavery of the 
United States bears to the recovery of Airica from barbarism. 

We shall turn first to the British West Indies, and as Jamaica is 
the most prominent of these islands, and will best serve as a type of 
the whole, our inquiries will be chiefly confined to it. We have 
obtained our facts, principally, from the recendy written history of 
Jamaica, by the Rev. J. J^L Phillippo, for twenty years a Baptist 
missionary in that island. 

'J'he Island of Jamaica, discovered in 1494, was setded by a colony 
of Spaniards in 1509, who, by their oppressions and savage cruelties, 
in less than fifty years, wholly exterminated the native population, 
originally numbering from eighty thousand to one hundred thousand. 
Afiican slaves seem to have been introduced at an early day as sub- 
stitutes for the naUves, and up to 1655, when the English, then at 
war with Spain, took possession of the island, forty thousand slaves 
had been imported by the Spaniards, only fifteen hundred of whom 
were then surviving. Jamaica, by this change of masters, was not 
much improved in its social and moral condition, which, under the 
one hundred and forty-six years of Spanij^h rule, had been deplorable. 
It now became the rendezvous of buccaneers and piratical crusaders, 
a desperate band of men from all the maritime powers of Europe, 
who continued to perpetrate almost every degree of wickedness, both 
on sea and land, until 1670, when peace was made with Spain, and a 
more vigorous administration of law attempted. Twenty-six years 
after England conquered the island, 1696, up to which period the 
importadon of slaves was still continued, the whites numbered fiiteen 



9- Relations of American Slavery 

lliouf^and one hundred and ninely-eiolu, and the shives nme thousand 
five liuiulred. At the end of an addiiional forty-six years, 17^2, du- 
ring nearly the m hole of wiiich time ilie nionojK 1)' of the slave trade 
was held hy England, the whites numbered fourteen thousand, and die 
slaves one hundred tliousand. 'J'he annual importation of slaves into 
Jamaica now reached sixteen thousand, so that, at tlie end of another 
twenty-eight years, they numbered two hundred thousand, while the 
whites had scarcely increased two thousand. These numbers show, 
thai from 1742 till 1770, a period of twenty-eight years, the number 
of slaves who sunk under the lash of the Jamaica task-master, must 
have been two hundred and forty-eight thousand, or almost nine 
thousand annually. The whole number of slaves imported by the 
English, up to 1808, when the slave trade was forbidden by Parlia- 
ment, was eight hundred and fifty thousand, to which must be added 
the forty thousand imported by the Spaniards, making the total num- 
ber of the population of Africa, transported to Jamaica, amount to 
eight hundred and ninety thousand men. And yet, the startling truth 
must be told, that when the census of the slave population of this 
island was ordered by government, in 1835, under the emancipation 
act, instead of an increase on the numbers imported, they amounted 
to only three hundred and eleven thousand six hundred and ninety-two. 

It will be an easy task for any person of ordinary intelligence, to 
picture to himself the state of morals and the social condition of the 
white inhabitants of Jamaica, during the several periods of its history 
to whicli we have referred ; and what must have been the reflex 
influence of such a population upon the poor ignorant savages from 
Africa. To say that the moral character of the whites of Jamaica 
was the extreme reverse of that of the early setUers of the United 
Stales, would, perhaps, be strictly true. On this point, however, we 
shall not dwell. Our object is to see what were the results to the 
Africans introduced into that island, that their progress, intellectually 
and morally, may be contrasted with that of the colored pojiulatiou 
of the United States, that we may learn their qualifications to give to 
Africa a Christian civilization. 

On this point we are not left to conjecture. The Rev. Mr. Phil 
lippo is very full upon the subject of their social and moral condition, 
and the facts stated by him in his history, before referred to, are con- 
firmed by the missionary history of the island. lie represents the 
slaves as having retained, in full practice, all the gross and debasing 
superstitions which were capable of being transferred from Africa, 
and that "ujiward of one hundred years after Jamaica became an 
ap|iend:ige of the Hrilish crown, scarcely an ellort had been made to 
instruct the slaves in the great doctrines and duties of Christianity; 
and alihoujrh, in lOiJO, at the instance of the mother country, an ac^t 
was passed by the local legislature, directing that all slave owners 
slu)uld instruct dieir negroes, and have them baptised, 'when fit for 
il,' it is evident, from the very terms in which the act was expressed, 
that il was designed to be, as it afterward proved, a dead letter — a 
mere political maneuver, intended to prevent tlic jiarent state from 
jnterferinff in the manajremcnt of the slaves." 



To African Civilization. 93 

From this time to 1770, a period of seventy-four years, the 
question of slave instruction lay dead in Jamaica, when Parliament 
put certain questions to Mr. Wedderburn as to the actual state of the 
religious instruction of slaves in the Island. He replied, "There 
are a few properties on which there are Moravian parsons ; but in 
general there is no religious instruction." The same testimony was 
borne at the same time by Mr. Fuller, Agent of Jamaica, and two 
others, who, when asked, " What religious instructions are there for 
the negro slaves," answered, " We know of none such in Jamaica." 

The Rev. Dr. Coke, who was sent out on a missionary exploration 
in 1787, says, " When I first landed in Jamaica, the form of Godli- 
ness was hardly visible ; and its power, except in some few solitary 
instances, was totally unknown. Iniquity prevailed in all its forms. 
Both whites and blacks, to the number of between three hundred 
thousand and four hundred thousand, were evidently living without 
hope and without God in the world. The language of the AposUe 
seems strikingly descriptive of their entire depravity: "There is 
none riu;hteous, no, not one; tliere is none that understandeth, there 
is none that seeketh after God. Their throats are an open sepulcher; 
with their tongue they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under 
their lips ; their feet are swift to shed blood, and the way of peace 
they have not known." 

In 1796, Mr. Edwards, the historian of the West Indies, in his 
place in the House of Commons, when speaking of sending mission- 
aries to a certain point in Jamaica, said, " I speak from my own 
knowledge wlien I say, that they are cannibals, and that instead of 
listening to a missionary, tiiey would certainly cat him." 

But this must complete our testimony of the effects of slavery upon 
its subjects in Jamaica. Mr. Philippo shows very conclusively, 
that the colored population of Jamaica, up to a very recent period, 
were elevated scarcely a jot above the natives of Africa. They had 
brought with tiiem from Africa nearly all its gross and debasing 
superstitions, and all its social moral evils, making their new homes 
in Jamaica almost ?i facsimile of those from which they had been 
torn in Africa. 

One additional fact, however, must not be overlooked ; and that is, 
that this fearful moral degradation of the slaves of Jamaica, and 
their total destitution of all the means of religious instrvction, did 
not render tiiem peaceful and contented, and secure the safety of their 
masters. This is abundantly proved in the fact, that during the 
period in wliich the Island was held by England, nearly thirty insur- 
rections of the .slaves took place. This fact, when contrasted with 
the comparatively few attempts at insurrection which have taken 
place in the United Slates, where religions instruction among tlie 
slaves has been common, should teach the slaveholder, that the 
perpetuation of the ignorance and degradation of the slaves, is no 
safeguard against servile insurrections, but that the teachings of 
Chnsiianity, while it opens up the way of eternal life to the slave, 
and prepares him to take upon himself the duties of a freeman, do 
not necessarily endanger tlie safety of the ma.'itcr. 



yi lidations of American Slavery 

"We have already stated the fact, that commerce is incapable of 
civiUzing savage men. In the history of" Jamaii;a, we liave still 
more positive evidence that slavery is equally powerless in the 
promotion ol' civilization, and that it can only be considered as a 
link in the chain of events which may bring savage tribes into the 
midst of a civilized people, but that the civilization of savages, under 
such circumstances, is no more a necessary result of slavery, than 
il is of their imprisonment in the slave ship that transported them 
across the ocean, or the manacles that bound them during the voyage. 
Let us look at the facts. The Eiiglisii ciuiquered the Island in 1065. 
The last testimony on the subject of the want of religious instruction 
for the slaves, dates in 1796. Tlie Island, therefore, had been under 
British rule for a period of one hundred and forty years. If, then, 
slavery could elevate, and improve, and civilize its victims, surely 
there was time enouih for it to have produced these fruits in the one 
hundred and forty years of British rule in Jamaica. Hut no such 
fruits had been borne. The slaves were still savage. Now, to these 
one hundred and forty years must be added at least twenty more of 
British rule, because missionary operations, introducing the Gospel, 
were not actively commenced until twenty years after this period. 
But if longer time is claimed, then add the one hundred and forty-six 
years during which the Island was under the Spaniards, to the one 
hundred and sixty under the Britisli, and we have tliree hundied 
years of absolute slavery in Jamaica, and yet the slaves made no 
advancement in the scale of moral being beyond die condition in 
which they had been originally found in Africa. The results of 
African slavery in Jamaica, at the end of these three hundied years, is 
thus graphically described by iNlr. Piiillippo, " Il may be emphatically 
said, that darkness covered the land, anil gross darkness the people. 
And if one ray ol' litriu glimmered in its midst, it only served to render 
the surrounding darkness still more visible — more clearly to exhibit 
the hideous abominations beneath which the Island groaned." 

This particular rel'erence has been made to this point, because of the 
fact, that many have a vague, indefinite, ill-defined notion, that the 
great good which has resulted to the slaves of the United Stales, in 
connection with slavery, 16- « y';v/t7 of slavery. And should it still 
be claimed, that the moral elevation attained by the African racs in 
the United Slates, is a necessary fruit of slavery, wiih equal pro- 
priety it can be urged, that the moral degradation of die slaves of 
Jamaica, fin* ihe three hundred years preceiling the beginning of the 
present century, was also due to slavery. Both these propositions 
cannot be true, 'i'lie fict is, that they are untrue in both cases. 
That the intellectual and moral elevation of the slaves of the United 
Slates is not due to slavery, is amply proved by the fact, that Ihe 
least udvancemoil Jtas ieni made by them uhere slavery exists in 
its irrcatest stroii^tli, and where the Christian teacher has been the 
most curifitlly shut ont from them. And so far as Jamaica is con- 
c<;nieil, il is true, bevonil all doubt, that its slavery did not degrade 
its African i)0(inlation inio savages, li found them savages, but was 
wholly powerless fiir iheir moral elevation, as long as the only 



To African Civilization. 95 

infiuences exerted over them were from a white population destitute 
of ii Christian morahty. 

Bui if slavery, of itself, he powerless in the moral elevation of its 
suhjecis, it does not necessarily prevent all moral improvement. The 
truth of this proposition is fully sustained hy the results in hoth the 
United Slates and Jamaica. It is iurtlier proved by the effects 
following the introduction of Christianity into all the British West 
India It;lands. The work of missions in Jamaica, as well as in the 
oiher Islands, met with the most rancorous opposition from the 
planters, who viewed the religious instruction of the slaves as " in- 
comp.itible with the existence of slavery." The mission work, 
though begun in Jamaica, by the Baptists, in 1813, and by the 
lAIeihodists, under Dr. Coke, in 1789, and again in 1815 — made but 
little progress, being resolutely opposed, until about 1820. In 1824, 
the Moravians, who had commenced in 1754, had four stations and 
four missionaries; the Wesleyan Methodists eight stations and eight 
missionaries ; and the Baptists five stations and tive missionaries. 

Here then, are the dales of the commencement of regular religious 
instruction in Jamaica. Though overawed by the mother country, 
the planters still manifested bitter hostility to the religious instruction 
of tiie slaves, and in 1832, on a partial insurrection of tlie Blacks, 
their wrath overflowing all bounds, they destroyed fourteen chapels, 
with private houses and other property, belonging to the Baptists, 
amounting in value to 8)15,250, and six chapels, belonging to tlie 
Methodists, and property worth $30,000. Every species of cruelly 
and insult weie inflicted upon the missionaries. The emancipation 
act ol' the next year, 1833, for ever put it out of the power of the 
planters to repeat such acts of injustice and violence, and the mis- 
sionary work, uninterrupted, has been eminently successful. In 
1842, says the Rev. Mr. Philiippo, the whole number of converts in 
Jamaica was one hundred thousand, out of a population of near half 
a million; the number of regidar places of worship were two hun- 
dred and twenty-six, and the out stations swelling them to three 
hundred; while the number of missionaries were over one hundred 
and seventy, with nearly an equal number of native assistants, 'i'hus 
stood the qnestion of the religious instruction of the African popula- 
tion of the Island in 1842. Superstitions and immoralities were fast 
disappearing under ihe influence of the gospel, and the marria<re 
relation was respected. But the fewness of the missionaiies and teach- 
ers, in proportion to the population, rendering it impracticable to bring 
all under a course of instrucUon. makes the progress slower than is de- 
sirable, and leaves many portions of the Island still sunk in ignorance. 

Previous to the year 1823, there were not more than one or two 
schools for the colored people on the whole Island. In 1824, the 
whole number of missionaries was seventeen, in a slave population 
of three hundred and eleven thousand, and a free colored population 
of forty thousand. Here, then, were the educational agencies of 
Jamaica, twenty-five years ago — not over nineteen missionaries and 
teachers to a population of three hundred and fifty-one thousand 
souls, or only one to each eighteen thousand four hundred. 



9G Relations of American Slavery 

In this brief outline of the history of Jamaica, ample evidence is 
furni.-^hed lo sliow that slavery is powerless for good lo its victims. 
It also proves, that a free Christianity can transform, and elevate, 
and civilize, even slaves. But, as a l)arbarous people cann(»t nudve 
nuicli progrerjS in a single generation, Jamaica, at present, can sr.j)ply 
lilde aid in the bestowment of a Christian civilization npon Africa. 
In relation to Cuba, the tale is soon told. According to McQueen, its 
slave population, some years ago, was four hundred and tuenty-five 
thousand, of whom one hundred and fifty thousand were fem-des, 
and two hundred and seventy-live thousand were males. Tins liis- 
proportion of the sexes will sufficiently indicate the social evils 
growing out of such a condition of things. Since that period, the 
slave trade has received a great stimulus, by the opening of the 
English markets to slave-grown sugar, and the continued importiition 
of slaves into Cuba, gives her at present six hundred thousand. Siio 
has also one hundred thousand free colored persons, and six hundred 
and ten thousand whiles. 

A report read before the London Anti-Slavery Society, 181 1], 
represents the plantaUon slaves of Cuba as never receiving the least 
moral or religious instruction. " Most of them are baptized, because 
the curate's ceniticate of baptism serves as a tide deed in the civil 
courts of the Island. They live, in general, in a slate of concubinage. 
They have not the most distant idea of C'iiristianity. 'J'ho annual 
decrease by deaths over births is, among the plantation slaves, from 
ten to twelve per cent., and among the others from four to six per 
cent. The births exceed the deaths among the free colored popula- 
tion, from five to six per cent. Th.e liours of labor were from four, 
A. Mi until ten, P. M., including eighteen hours of the twenty-lour, 
with an allowance of an hour for dinner." 

An extract of a letter from an eyewitness in Cuba, which was 
adilressed to Lord John Russell, and copied into Blackwood's Maga- 
zine, February, 1848, says, "It was crop time: the mills went 
round night and day. On every estate, (I scarcely hope to be 
believed when I state the fact,) cilery slave was worked under the 
whip, eighteen hours of the twenty four^ and in the boiling-houses, 
from five to six, P. M., and from eleven o'clock till midnight, wiien 
half the people were concluding their eighteen hours' work, the sound 
of the hellish lash was incessant; indeed it was necessary, to keep 
the overtasked wretches awake. Tlie six hours which they resied, 
they spent locked in a barracoon — a strong, foul, close sty, Mhcre 
they wallowed wiilunit distiiu-tion of age or sex. While at work, the 
slaves were stimulated by drivers, armed with swords and whips, 
and protected by magnificent bloodhounds. 'I'here was no marry- 
ing among the planialion slaves. On many estates females were 
oniirely excluded. It was cheaper and less troublesome lo buy than 
to raise slaves." *'' *«•*** " Iveligious instruction and 
medical aid were not carried out generally beyond l):iptism and 
vaccination. " 

But a sense of propriety forbids that we should complete the qno- 
Ijlioii. Enough, truly, is given to show that ll-.e social and moral 



To Jifrican Civilizalion. 97 

condition of the slaves in Ciibn is most deplorable. Nor have any 
ameliorating' agencies been introduced to work a change. In a 
carel'ul inspection of the operations of English and American mis- 
sionary societies, we cannot find that any missionaries of a free 
Christianity have gained a foothold in Cuba. The exclusiveness 
of the established religion of Spain, which forbids freedom of religion, 
has, no doubt, been extended to her colony, and the poor African 
still toils beneath the lash of his merciless taskmaster, unconscious 
of his accountability to God, and of the offer of salvation through 
faith in the Saviour. 

After this picture of the results accompanying the enslavement of 
the Africans in Cuba, no one will look to that island for aid in the 
civilization of Africa, until the self-denying missionaries of a free 
Christianity, are permitted to labor therein, for the instruction and 
salvation of the poor slave. 

The slaves transported from Africa to Brazil have been subjected 
to hifluences as unfavorable to intellectual and moral improvement as 
those taken to any other country. Unfortunately for Brazil, a free 
Christianity was not secured to its early settlers from Europe, and the 
consequences have been deplorable. In accordance with the views 
and policy of the times, the most rigid and extreme measures were 
adopted to preserve unity of faiih. Two ministers and fourteen stu- 
dents, sent out to Brazil by the Protestant Church of Geneva, were 
prevented, by the sanguinary fanaticism of the adherents of the estab- 
lished religion, from introducing a Bible Christianity. The leading 
men of the party of Huguenots, who fled to Brazil in 1555, from per- 
secution in France, were thrown into prison, and after eight years' 
confinement, Jdlni Boles, the most prominent of the prisoners, was 
martyred, at Rio de Janeiro, " for the sake of terrifying his country- 
men, if any of them should be lurking in those parts." The Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church of the United States, a kw years since, 
attempted to enter into Brazil as a missionary field, but the effort, 
proving unsuccessful, has been abandoned. 

Without the Bible as a moral instructor of youth, and without the 
presence of the advocates of a free Christianity, as rivals to stimu- 
late and liberalize the state religion, it is not a matter of wonder 
that the Brazilians should have sunk in the scale of moral being. The 
rising generations, coming more or less under the influence of the 
native heathenism, could not attain as high a standard of intelligence 
and morals as tliose which had preceded them. It was to be expected, 
therelbre, that the costly church edifices, erected by the pious zeal 
and profuse liberality of the early Portuguese emigrants, should often 
be perverted from the use to which they were originally consecrated ; 
and, as is asserted in Kidder's Brazil, that the preaching of the gos- 
pel should not be known among the weekly services of the church ; 
and, also, as is declared by Southev, that its practices should be 
those of polytheism and idolatry. 

Details of the social and moral condition of the Brazilians is 
uncalled for on such an occasion as tliis. But, as connected with our 
investigations, we must be permitted to say, that such were the evil 



98 lielalions of American Slavtrxj 

tendencies of the religious system of Brazil, that, in 1813, the min- 
ister of justice and ecclesiastical aflairs, addressed the Imperial 
Legislature as follows : 

"The state of retrogression into which our clergy are falling is 
notorious. The necessity of adopting measures to remedy such an 
evil is also evident. On the 9th of September, 1842, the government 
addressed inquiries on this subject to the bishops and capitular vicars. 
Although complete answers have not been received from all of them, 
yet the following particulars are certified : 

" 'J'he lack of priests who will dedicate themselves to the cure of 
souls, or w-ho even offer themselves as candidates, is surprising. In 
the province of Paia, there are parishes which, for twelve years and 
upward, have had no pastor. 'J'he district of the river Negro, con- 
taining some fourteen selUements, has but one priest; while that of 
the river Solimoens is in similar circumstances. In the three comar- 
cas of Belem, and the Upper and the jjower Amazon, there are thirtv- 
six vacant parishes. In Maranham, twenty-five churches have, at 
dilTercnt times, been advertised as open for applications, without 
securing the offer of a single candidate. 

"Tile bishop of St. Paulo affirms the same thing respecting vacant 
churches in his diocese, and it is no uncommon experience elsewhere. 
In the diocese of Cuyaba, not a single church is provided with r\ 
settled curate, and those priests who ofiiciate as stated supplies, 
treat the bishop's efforts to instruct and improve them with great 
indifference. 

" In the bishopric of Rio de Janeiro, most of the churches are sup- 
plied with pastors, but a great number of them only temporarily. 
'I'his diocese embraces four provinces, but during nine years past not 
more than five or six priests have been ordained per year. 

"It may be observed, that tlie numerical ratio of those priests who 
die, or become incompetent through age and infirmity, is two to one 
of those who receive ordination. Even among those who are ordained, 
few devote themselves to pastoral work. They either turn theit 
attention to secular pursuits, as a means of securing greater conven- 
iences, emoluments, and respect, or they look out for chaplaincies, and 
other situations, which offer equal or superior inducements, without 
suiijccting them to the literary tests, the trouble and the expense 
necessary to secure an ecclesiastical benefice. 

"This is not the place to investigate the causes of such a.statc of 
things, but certain it is, that no persons of standing devote their sons 
to the priesthood. Most of those who seek the sacred ollice are indi- 
gent persons, who, by their poverty, arc often prevented from pursu- 
ing the requisite studies. \\'ithout doubt, a principal reason why so 
few devote themselves to ecclesiastical pursuits, is to be found in the 
small income allowed them. Moreover, the perquisites established 
as the remuneration of certain clerical services, have resumed the 
voluntary character which they had in primitive times, and the |)riest 
who attempts to coerce his parishioners into payment »)f them, almost 
always renders himself odious, and gets little or nothing for his 
trouble." 



To Jlfriccui Civilization. 99 

After such a picture of the inefficiency of the established rehgion 
of Brazil, and such evidences of its decay and want of sufficient vital 
energy to preserve it from extinction, it will excite no surprise to find 
the government, in 1836, proposing to employ Moravian missionaries 
to catechise the Indians of the interior. 

An American in Brazil, writing to the Boston Advocate from Rio, 
Sept., 1849, says: "Every one, on his first landing at Rio, will be 
forced to the conclusion that all classes indiscriminately mingle to- 
gether; all appearing on terms of the utmost equality. If tliere be 
any distinction, it is perceptible only between freedom and slavery. 
There are many blacks here quite wealthy and respectable, who amal- 
gamate with the white families, and are received on a footing of per- 
fect equably. The mechanical arts are at least half a century behind 
those of our own. The churclies, some fifty in number, are falling 
to decay, which gives to the city a look of dilapidation ; few are still 
observant of its ceremonies ; but lillle or no attention is paid to the 
Sabbath. The stores do business, and the workshops are open the 
same as on other days. A few may be seen going to worship on the 
Sabbath, but a greater number resort to billiard tables in the afternoon, 
and to theaters at night. The slave population is estimated at tliree 
times the number of that of the whites. They are allowed to go 
almost naked, the upper part of the body of both male and female 
entirely so.'''' 

Amid this general dearth of religious interest among the Brazilians, 
it will of course be expected that the moral training of the poor slave 
has been totally neglected, and that he yet remains in all the darkness 
and degradation of African heathenism. Treated as a beast of burden, 
he can know but little more of his moral responsibility to God than 
the mule he drives.* 

We find no evidence, thus far, that will warrant our adopting any 
other agency than Christianity as a primary means of moral im- 
provement for the African slave, or in the civilization of any barbar- 
ous people. Nor do we find any agency elsewhere than in the 
United States, upon which reliance can be placed for extending a 
Christian civilization to Africa. 

"But," says one, "you have passed by an element of human pro- 
gress, more certain in its operation than any you have named. Give 
the slave but liberty, and he will vindicate his humanity, and rise to 
an equality with his imperious oppressor. This language once seemed 
oracular, but time, which tests opinions and theories, has fully sliown 
that there is no magic power in liberty and equality, any more than 
in trade and commerce, to originate civilization and produce a moral 
revolution among a savage or semi-barbarous people. 

In proof of this proposition, it is only necessary, to our present 

* The population of Brazil, at present, is as follows : 

Slaves 3,000,000 

Indians and Free Negroes U, 500, 000 

Whites 1,500,000 

A large majority of the army, as well officers as privates, arc of African 
descent. 



lUU Relations of American Slavery 

purpose, to refer to Ilayti, where, after enjoying liberty and pqualit\ 
ibr nearly half a century, the people have with apparent \villiii;Tness 
Fubniitted to despotism, and bid fair, if regenerating agencies i'rom 
abroad are not introduced, to relapse into barbarism, llayti, like 
Brazil and Cuba, having only a fettered Christianily, derived from 
France, made no provision for the instruction of the slaves. School 
houses for the people, those earliest off-shoots of a free Christianity, 
'iiad not been provided by the French proprietors for their slaves. 
Hence, when the shackles of slavery were removed from the slaves 
of Hayti, by the act of the Constituent Assembly of France, Intelli- 
gence not prevailing, the Industry of the Island, formerly compulso- 
ry, was soon abandoned. Before emancipation, says Blackwood's 
Magazine, 1848, the exports from Ilayti, of sugar alone, reached six 
hundred and seventy-two millions of pounds, and the consumption of 
Freiicli manufactures, in the island, reached $49,450,000 ; but at 
present, she neither exports a single pound of sugar, nor imports a 
single article of manufactures. 

In this result we have a startling confirmation of the truth of the 
proposition staled in our former lecture, when discussing the results 
of West India emancipation, that intelligence 7nuit precede volun- 
tary industry. 

Nor has tlie Christian world neglected to offer to Ilayti a free 
Ciiristianity, that she too might be blest by its transforming power. 
The ofl'er was made and rejected, and this day she is reaping the 
bitter consequences. In 18H5, the American Baptist. Missionary- 
Society made an attempt to establisii a mission in Ilayti, which at 
first promised success, but was abandoned in 1837. When Mr. 
Phillippo visited that Island in 1842, about a dozen members, fruits 
of this mission, yet remained. 

As early as 1816 the English Wesleyans commenced a mission in 
Ilayti, but in 1819 the missionary had to leave on account of perse- 
cution from the adiierents of the prevailing religion. 'I'he converts, 
left behind, failhfid to the truth, eiuliirod a series of persecutions, bitter 
and relentless, only stopping short of actual martyrdom. In 1830, 
they numliered oidy ninety members, under tiie care of a native 
preacher ordained iii Enuland. 

'i'lie missionaries found ignorance and immorality predominant at 
this period, and, in one or more instances, had evidence suflicient 
allbrded to prove that idolatry was practised in Ilayti. 

Between 1820 and 1829, a brisk emigration from the United 
Stales to Ilayti, was conducted, transferring, accordinof to Benjamiu 
Lundy, eight thousand free colored persons to that If<land, the ex- 
penses of six thousand of whom being j)aid i)y the Ilayticn govern- 
ment. But this infusion of Hepublican leaven, though equaling in 
number the whole of the emigrants sent to Liberia, seems not to 
have wrought any wonders in the civilization of their brolher 
Republicans. All have quieUy sunk down together into despotism. 

The present social and moral condition of Ilayti may be inferred 
from the following extract of a letter from the Rev. Mr. Graves, one of 
the editors of the Christian Rellector, who recenUy visited the Island. 



To AJiican Civilization. 101 

"The Snbhalh is the great business clay of the week to the middle 
and lower classes, wliile llie rich employ it as a holiday. It is the 
day especially devoted to military parade and marketing. The 
public squares are crowded with buyers and sellers, and all the 
sliops thronged with customers as on no other day of the week, 
Tlie marriage relation is, for the most part, sustained without a 
marriage contract, and divorce and polygamy are too common to 
excile attention. The faithfid husband of a wife is a character so 
rare as to be a marked exception to the general rule. * * * * 
In a word, the instituuons of the Sabbath and of marriage, are alike 
prostrate. Both have a name; but the divine object of neither is 
secured, with a vast majority of the population. As a legitimate 
consequence, profaneness, inlemperance, and vulgarity extensively 
characterize all classes of society." 

The revolution in Hayti, which expelled Boyer from the Island, 
led to a correspondence having in view the introduction of mission- 
aries from the United States. One of tlie letters from a prominent 
citizen of Jeremie, 1843, says, "You have exacdy hit on the essen- 
tial points in recommending the establishment of individual families 
by marriages, to serve as a basis of the great social family, the 
establishment of institutions for the diffusion of moral and religious 
instruction," &c. 

The inference to be drawn from this letter is, that in 184.3, as in 
1849, the marriage relation was not established and respected in 
Hayti. 

Here, then, in Hayti, we have the proof that liberty and equality, 
enjoyed socially and politically, to its fullest extent, are also power- 
less in the promotion of civilization. Even its newly made emperor, 
we are told, still practises some heathenish rites allied to the devil- 
worship of Africa. We shall not go to despotic Hayti for agents to 
help to build up Republican Liberia. 

But shall we go to Mexico for aid in the civilization of AQ'ica? A 
part of die population, torn by the slave trade from Africa, was taken 
to Mexico. As our plan contemplates the tracing of die various 
lines of (lispersion, so as to inquire into the results, a glance at 
Mexico will be appropriate, especially as we have in that govern- 
ment still a different phase of the movement exhibited to us for our 
instruction. 

The character of the earlier Spanish adventurers and colonists in 
M^jcico, and the means by which tliey subdued and enslaved the 
natives, is too familiar to all to need a notice at present. From a 
statement in Jay's Review of the Mexican War, we learn that the 
population of Mexico stands as follows: 

Indians, . . 4,000,000 

Whites, . . 1,000,000 

Netrroes, . . G,000 

Mixed breeds, . 2,009,509=7,015,509. 

Judge Jay, it must be remembered, is a waim abolitionist, and of 
course not disposed to aspeise the character of the descendants 
of Afiica anywhere. By this statement it v.ill be jierceived, that 



102 Relations of American Slavery 

one important object has been o;nine(l in Mexico,* and wliicli, m tlie 
opinion of many, constitutes tiie sole barrier to the colored man's 
elevation in the United States. We refer \o prejudice against color. 
In Mexico it seems to have had no existence, but that, on the con- 
trary, amulgcunalion., on an extended scale, lias been practised, 
producing a population of mixed breeds, amounting to more than 
two millions of souls, out of seven millions, and reducing the pure 
negro stock, imported from Africa, to the meager number of six 
thousand. But tliis was not the only point gained for the African in 
Mexico. In due time, liberty and equality were also bestowed. 
Mexico, in 1813, threw ofl" the yoke of Spain, and declared herself a 
Republic. But the attempt of Iturl)ide, to restore a despotism, raising 
up a nice of military ciiieftains for his overthrow, afterward pro- 
duced a struggle for power, resulting, in 1824, in the prohibition of 
the slave trade, and the adoption of a constitution declaring /rfe all 
born after tliat date. Pedraza being elected President, Santa Anna 
at the head of the military, interposed, and placed in the presidential 
cliair the defeated candidate, Guerrero, who, to strengtiien himself, and 
the better to resist an invasion from Spaiu, then in process of execu- 
tion, issued a decree, September, 1829, emancipating all the slaves. 
Thus was liberty and equality at once secured to the slaves of Mexico. 

liut Mexico, under Spain, had a fettered Christianity, trans- 
planted to her soil, which is still retained, and she has carefully 
excluded from her limits a free Christianity, with its schoolhouscs 
and Bibles for the people. The third article of her constitution 
of 1824, declares, that, "The religion of the Mexican nation is, and 
will be perpetually, the Roman Catholic Apostolic. The nation will 
protect it by wise and just laws, and prohibit the exercise of any 
other whatever." It is true, that when Buslamente, who deposed 
Cuerrero, was overturned in 1833, by Santa Anna, this general 
atteinjited to pursue a liberal course of policy, and aliolislied ecclesi- 
astical tithes, monastic vows, and the authority of the Pope; and 
took the education of youth out of the hands of tlie priests, appointing 
the professcH's in the live free colleges whicii he estalilished, witiiout 
regard to country or reliirious failli. But this efl'ort to liberalize the 
religion of Mexico proved an ai)ortion, tlie President, after putting 
down several revolts, being forced to readopt the old system as the 
estalilished faith of Mexico. 

Now let us see what has been gained for the Africans who were 
taken to Mexico. First, llie abolition of prijudice and the adoption 
of aiiHil<i;ain(ilii»i ; and second, (mancipation, tcilh liberty and 
equuHly, including the ri<(lit of si'Jf'rdgr. Here, then, in liie ojiinion 
ol mail)', is a vast gain for the African, aliove what he has had granted to 
him el.-ewherc ; because, thdugh, in Hay ti, he had liberty and equalily, 
yet all ieing African together, there was not the honor conferred 
which was secured in Mexico, by making him the equal to the de- 
scendants of the proud (.'asiilians who had conquered Montezuma. 
Now for the results of these favoring circumstances. But, happily for 
us, .Judge Jay has drawn the picture of Mexico, for 1810, to the life. 

" 'i'he Repuiilic of Mexico h.ul lon^ been the jircy of military 



To African CivilizcUion. 103 

ciiieftains, who, in tlieir struggles for power, and the perpetual 
revolutions tliey had excited, liad exhausted the resources of the 
country. Without money, without credit, without a single frigate, 
without commerce, without union, and with a feeble poj)ulation of 
seven or eight millions, composed chiefly of Indians and mixed 
breeds, scattered over immense regions, and for the most part sunk 
in ignorance, and sloth, Mexico was certainly not a very formidable 
enemy to the United States." In addition, tiie Judge states, that the 
exports from Mexico, in 1842, were, exclusive of gold and silver, 
$1,500,000, or a little over forty-nine and a half cents per head to 
her population, excluding the Indians. To those who are curious 
in seeking for contrasts, it may be interesting to them to know, that 
the export commerce of Liberia is about $100 per head for each 
emigrant residing in the Republic. 

Here, now, are the results of the movements in Mexico. She 
adopted a Republican form of government, denounced the foreign 
slave trade, and emancipated her slaves, placing the whole population 
in a condition of social and political equality. But in thus obeying the 
dictates of one of Uie fundamental principles of the North American 
confederacy, which declares the natural eqiialily of mankind, she 
overlooked the other still more important one, that only men of in- 
telligence and moral integrity are capable of self-government. This 
fatal error, the source of all her misfortunes, was the result of another 
oversight which Mexico committed in the outset of her career. In 
casting oft" the shackles of political despotism, she retained the 
fettered form of Christianity which had been adopted to give security 
to crowned heads, and which is so antagonistic to the spirit of repub- 
lican institutions. This system, where not stimulated by the rivalry, 
of a free Christianity, makes no provision for general education. The 
Republican leaders, tiierefore, who wished to advance the general intcl- 
igence of the people, could not accomplish the task, nor take the educa- 
tional interests out of the hands of those who had previously possessed 
their control. The ignorance of the masses being thus perpetuated, 
the severing of the ties binding the slave to the master left the freed 
man, in consequence of his ignorance, a constant prey, to the 
intrigues of military chieftains. The right of suffrage was thus 
rendered almost utterly valueless in Mexico, because the decisions 
of the ballot-box were repeatedly set aside, and the power of the 
sword interposed to give to the nation its rulers. How far emanci- 
pation in Mexico may have arrested the prosperity of tlie nation, 
and tended to destroy its internal peace, rendering property and life 
insecure, by letting loose a large number of semibarbarous and 
savage men from the restraints of slavery, to be controlled at will by 
ambitious chieftains, we shall not wait to inquire. Our concern is 
with the efl'ects produced upon the Africans by their transfer to 
Mexico. Their history tells us, that liberty and equality in Mexico, 
have fallen far short in the production of the good to the slave which his 
wants require ; not that these privileges are valueless and ought to he 
wilhheld, but because that the intellectual and moral culture, ivhich 
impart intelligence and moral integrity, were not included in the gift 



101 delations of Jimcrican Slavery 

"We have now completed tlie circuit of oiii investigations. The 
facts revealed in relation to the intensity of the wretcliedness of the 
African race, not only in Africa itself, but in many of the comitries to 
which they have been transported, are well calculated, at first view, 
to cause tlie philanthropic heart to shrink from making an elTbrt to 
aflbrd relief, because of the immensity of the obstacles to be over- 
come, before their deliverance can be accomplished. But, upon a 
closer view of the subject, it would seem that their dispersion to the 
different countries in which they have been enslaved, was permitted 
by Divine Providence, with the view of teaching the world some 
great lessons upon llie subject of the true elements of Innnan pi-o- 
gress, and at the same time to make ample provision for the recovery 
of Africa from barbarism. Let us see. 

Without at present recapitulating the facts upon which we base 
our opinions, or stating the arguments by which they may be sup- 
ported, tlie investigations, just completed, aflbrd much material to 
sustain the following conclusions : 

I. That a Free Christianity — revealing the individual responsibility 
of man to God, producinii a pure morality, generating independence 
of thought, begetting a spirit of philanthropv, and teaching the natu- 
ral equality of mankind — is the j)rimary element of civilization 
and all useful human progress. 

II. That the secondary but essential elements of civilization and use- 
ful human progress, and which are included in and necessarily 
dependent, for their full development, upon the primary, are these : 

1. Liberty of conscience in the worship of God 

2. Both secular and religious education. 

3. Personal freedom. 

4. Social and political equality. 

5. The sacredness of the marriage relation, and the possession and 
control, by parents, of their oflspring. 

G. The right of property in the fruits of industry. 

7. 'i'ime, for the operation and development of tlicse elements. 

From the possession of these rights and privileges, and their con- 
stant exercise, there necessarily is produced among men : First, The 
fear of God and just conceptions of moral responsibility. Second, 
An enlightenment of conscience, begetting moral integrity and a pure 
morality, llius securing confidence between man and man, and creat- 
ing the basis of tiie safety of society. 'J'hird, A proper estimate of 
man's relations and responsibilities to his fellow-inan. Fourtli, Phi- 
lanthropy, or tlie desire of the welfare of our neighbor. Fifth, The 
love of home and of oflspring, leading to untiring eflbrts for their 
welfare. Sixth, Industry, to accumulate property for the individual's 
or the family's use. Seventh, Trade and commerce, to supply the 
artificial wants which advancing civilization creates. 

Tiie truth of these conclusions being admitted, it will follow, that 
just so far as the primary and secondary elements of civilization 
and useful human progress are possessed, or not possessed, in whole 
or in part, by a barl)arous or semi-barbarous ])eople, to tlie same 



To Jijrican Civilization. 105 

ex'ent and in the same proportion may we expect them to advance or 
retrograde. And if we li)id that the progress or non-progress oi' the 
Africans, who foim the subject of our inquiries, has been in the pro- 
portion in wliicli they have enjoyed, or not enjoyed, all, or some, or 
none, of the blessings, rights, and privileges named, then we liave 
evidence to establish the truth of the proposition, that the catalogue 
given, constitutes the elements of civilization. And further, it being 
thus proved, that a free Christianity necessarily begets intelligence 
and moral integrity, and therefore tends to restore man to his original 
state of knowledge and uprightness; and as such a moral condition 
necessarily secures the welfare of society, it follows, tlwt our propo- 
sition, heretofore stated, is true, viz : that Christianity, loicorriipttd, 
is capable of restoring to man his lost happiness. Now let us see 
how far our conclusions are sustained by the facts brought out in our 
investigations. 

In tlie United States, where the primary element, a free Christian- 
ity, had its birth, the commencement of the slave's elevation is of 
equal date witii his touching the shore. But as the secondary ele- 
ments of progress have been mostly denied to the slave, and the pri- 
mary often enjoyed but imperfectly, his advancement has been 
impeded, and his progress falls short of what it would have been, had 
liis privileges been more extended, so as to include more of the ele- 
ments of civilization. This view is fully sustained by the fact, that 
the greater advancement made by ihefree colored man over the slave, 
m the United States, is about in the proportion of the extent of the 
additional privileges which he has enjoyed. 

[n Jamaica, which, for three hundred years, was emphatically 
without religion, and where, during that time, neither the primary 
nor a single one of the secondary elements of civilization were in 
the possession of the slaves, no progress was made by them until a 
free Christianity was introduced and their religious education com- 
menced. Nor was the progress rapid until the emancipation act, of 
1833, put them in possession of an increased number of the elements 
of civilization. As they still lack an essential element, social and 
political equality, and as secular and religious education is not sup- 
plied to the extent of the wants of the population, retarding causes 
exist in Jamaica, which will prevent that high intellectual and moral 
development that should be secured to the African. ^ 

In Cuba and Brazil, it does not appear that the slaves possess 
either the primary or secondary elements of civilization, and, conse- 
quendy, the first step in human progress remains to be taken. Un- 
like Jamaica, which was without religion, Cuba and Brazil had a 
fettered Christianity, but sunk so low as to have lost what little vital- 
ity it once possessed, and consequendy, in these countries no one 
has cared for the soul of the slave, but he is still left to toil on in 
mental and moral night, and in anguish and in woe, until a premature 
death kindly wrests him from the oppressor's grasp. 

In Ilayti, one fact presents itself, of peculiar importance in proof 
of our proposition, that a free Christianity is the primary element of 
civilization. The primary element alone existed among the slaves 



lOG Relations of Jtmericun Slavery 

of tlie United States, and all the secondary, except liberty of con- 
science, and religious education, were wanting; yet progress was 
made, and an approximation to civilization attained. But in Hayli, for 
nearly half a century, all the secondary clemenls of proicresa, except- 
ing liberty of conscience and secular and religious education, were in 
possession of the people, but instead of progress under these advan- 
taoes, there has been retrogression; and no other sufficient reason 
can be assigned for it, but tliat the primary element, a free Christian- 
ity, which alone can develope the moral powers of man and impart 
life and activity to the secondary elements, was wholly excluded from 
the island. Had Hayti, when she became republican, possessed the 
primary element of progress, she would have been dotted over witli 
schoolhouses and churches ; secular and religious education would 
have prevailed everywhere ; the sacredness of the marriajre relation 
would have been respected ; the welfare of offspring promoted ; vol- 
laitary industry adopted, and the energies of its inhabitanis roused 
into action. Under these circumstances despotism could not have 
reentered the island. 

The facts in relation to the colored population of Mexico, are so 
strictly the same with tliose of Hayti, that we need not slate them, 
'i'wenty years' possession of nearly all the secondary elements of 
civilization, but in complete destitution of the primarv, has scarcely 
impelled them forward a step beyond their original barbarism. 'Vo 
the white pnpvdation of Mexico, tlie residts have been very similar to 
what has occurred in IJiazil. In both countries, there is danirer, it 
would seem,yVo7?i the natural tendencies of fallen human nature to 
barbarism, that the civilization transplanted iVom Europe, in the ab- 
sence of the primary element of progress, may greatly retrograde, in 
consequence of the overpowering iniluence of heathenism, by which 
it is surrounded. This remark will equally apply to nearly all the 
South American governments, which, on throwing off the European 
yoke of political despotism, and giving freedom to the slave, made no 
provision for public education, either secular or religious. 

IJut this examination of the dillerent results that have grown out 
of the various degrees, in which the African lias been brought under 
the influence of the elements of civilization, in the countries where 
he has been enslaved, may now be closed. Eaels enough are given, 
eertaiidy, to teach us important lessons in relation to the elements of 
useful human progress — facts enou<<h to show that Christianity is the 
])rimary element of civilization ; not Christianity, as fettered and 
made an euL'ine of despotic sway over mankind, hi)ldinir tiiem in 
ign<prance of their rights and obligations; but a free ("hrisiianiiy, 
based upon the Bible, demanding for men, equal riyhts and liberty of 
conscience, and teaching tlieni that respect for the rights of oiiiers, 
and that moral integrity which gives security to governments, based 
upon law — fac'ts enoiigli, too, to prove, that unless all the eleinenls of 
progress, primary and secondary, be enjoyed unreslraincd, and in 
full extrcise, by a peoi)le, there will exist impediments to their 
advancement — facts enough, further, to prove that it is dangerous to 



To Africun Civilization. 107 

M'itlihold from men, the elements of moral pro<^ress, when conferriiifr 
upon ihem those of social and poliiical advancement — and facts 
enough, furthermore, to prove, that for a civilized community, or state, 
or nation, to admit a barbarous or semi-barbarous people inio its 
bosom, or to retain them when forced upon it, without supplyino; to 
them the elements of intellectual and moral elevation, is to cherish 
an agent antagonistic to civiUzation, and which must react unfavorably 
upon itself, in retarding, if not preventing, its further prosperity. 

Our investigations also show, that tlie African race is not in posses- 
sion of all the elements of civilization in any of the countries to which 
they have been transported. A further investigation would show that 
there is no prospect, at present, of their ever attaining them in these" 
countries. But as their possession and free exercise, is essential to 
the production of the highest mental and moral developments of 
whicli the race is susceptible, the establishment of the Republic of 
Liberia,' becomes a matter of the highest importance, and most pro- 
found interest to the colored race. 

In the Republic of Liberia, and in Liberia only, can the colored 
man obtain possession and the free exercise of all the elements of 
civilization, and useful human progress. \\\ the Republic of the 
United States, and in the United States only, can the lohile man 
obtain possession and the free exercise of all the elements of civili- 
zation, and useful human progress. Here are two facts, not to be 
controverted. There exists at present, no European government, 
whose population possesses all these elements of progress. France 
has put herself in possession of the secondary, but is destitute of the 
primary. England may be said, in a good degree, to possess the 
primary, but withholds a part of the secondary from a large portion 
of her people. We repeat the assertion, therefore, that the RepubHc 
of the United States, is the only nation under the sun, where the 
u'hiie man can enjoy all the elements of useful human progress, and 
that the Republic of Liberia, is the only point, on the whole earth, 
where the colored man can enjoy them. And, further, we assert, 
"that the United States is the only country, where the colored man has 
had the opportunity of enjoying any part of these blessings, and of 
ti'itnessing the ivorkings of the whole, and of co77i]jrehending their 
nature, and learning their value. 

And now we aie prepared also to assert, that the United States, 
only, of all the governments of the earth, possesses the necessary 
agents, in the persons of intelligent and industrious colored men, 
to recover Africa from barbarism, and to bestoiv upon that be- 
nighted land, as we are noiv doing in Liberia, all the ehmcnts ne- 
cessary to the production of the highest degree of civilization, and 
of thus securing to her, the greatest amount of prosperity, and of 
happiness. 

Here, then, are the results of bringing together, on the soil of the 
United States, the highest developments of Christian intelligence and 
integrity, and the lowest form of pagan ignorance and depravity. 
Here are the results of the experiment which, seemingly, w^as to test 



108 delations of Jhnerkan Slavery 

the capability of a free Christianity to transform the grossest material 
of humanity into the most refined — proving the unity and natural 
equality of the human race. Here is ample testimony, to prove the 
sulliciency of a pure Christianity, to restore to man his lost liafipi- 
ness. And here, now, is unfohUnl to view, the solution of the great 
question involved in all our investigations, //te rdaliomvhich the sla- 
verij of the United Stales bears to the recovery of ^'Ifrica from 
barharism. 

'I'he people of Liberia are themselves a standing wonder to the 
world. The greater part of them were slaves, until the hour they 
left our shores, and of all men in the world, would have been pro- 
nounced, and were pronounced, the least able to accomplish the work 
ihcy were sent to perform. But the elements of progress were borne 
along with them. The missionaries of a free Christianity ofl'ered 
themselves as a willing sacrifice, from year to year, to plant the ele- 
ments of civilization in Africa, that there, amid moral darkness and 
degradation, the evidence might be furnished, that the religion of 
their Lord and Master was divine; and able, not only, to secure 
eternal life to the soul of the believer, but to redeem the world from 
oppression and woe. 

Europe stands astonished at the mighty progress of the United 
States, in all that is ennobling and great. Its people imitate our ex- 
ample, and aim at our results, without understanding the secret of our 
success, and therefore fail. 'I'hey seem to be wholly incapable of 
comprehending the nature of our free institutions. Liberty, under 
the restraints of law, is an enigma they cannot solve. Thus far, we 
have stood alone, as a monument of the power of Republican Insti- 
tutions, to advance the welfare of man. And, indeed, such seemed 
to be our unique position, that we were ready to boast that only the 
Anglo-Saxon could be safely free. But now Liberia, as if to rebuke 
us for our pride, stands forward, and begins to loom up as another 
monument of the power of free institutions. He that was once a 
poor slave, and cowered beneath the voice of the white man, now 
stands erect in Liberia, like his own native palm tree, nor bows in 
meek submission but to the voice of the Eternal. 

The citizens of Liberia are beginning to realize the relations and 
responsil)iliiies of their new position, and call loudly lor help to exe- 
cute the higli destiny to which they arc called. Said the Mew Mr. 
I'aine, of Liberia, when on a visit to New York, with President 
Roberts, 1848: "Nearly every one of the ofllcers, from the least 
even to the greatest, arc communicants in some evangelical church, 
and adorn their life by a holy walk and conversation. You do not 
iind them on the Sabbath day, strolling about the streets, and seeking 
for pl(!asurc, as I have seen your people in this country, init they are 
found in the school and sanctuary. As an evidence of their being a 
.strictly moral and religious people, he would state, that out of eleven 
members in the House of Representatives, and six in the Senate, 
seventeen in all, only one w:is not a professor of religion. Inlelli-' 
gent Jiiberians," coniinucil iMr. Paine, "are iuipressid with the con- 
viction, that the Suj)reine Di.^^poser of (ivents, has called them to a 



To JIfrican Civilization. 109 

high mission; that they have transferred Plymouth to Africa, and 
ihat civihzaiion, repiibhcanism, and Christianity, are to proceed from 
them over a vast continent that lies in the shadow of death. Tliey 
are nerving themselves to the fuHiUment of such a destiny. 'J'hey 
have grasped the great idea, and have incorporated it with the foun- 
dations of the Republic." 

The following important letter, from the Rev. J. P. Pinnev, for- 
merly Governor of Liberia, was not received in time for insertion m 
the proper place : 

David Christy, Esq. 

Dear Brother — Your interesting letter of the 16lh ult., lingered, and 
then my absence for a few days, to attend a meeting at Annapolis, 
delayed a reply until it is probably too late to do you a service. In 
Mr. Tracy's pamphlet, entitled " Missions in Africa," there is a note 
with some interesting fiicts relative to cannibalism. 

1 never saw men eating human flesh, but have heard of its being 
done in the vicinity of Liberia. 

The letters of Sion Harris and Rev. G. Brown, who were attacked 
at the mission of the M. E. Church, at Heddington, in 1840, by 
Gotorah, the famous Condo warrior, (he had threatened to eat the 
missionary), state that the dried limbs of men slain previously were 
thrown away in their flight. 

This same warrior visited Gov. Buchanan, in 1839, to treat for a 
peace, and while there gave, in public council, as an objection to 
making peace, that he would have nobody to eat. 

In 1835, while I was agent of the Colonization Society,! sent two 
Melhodist ministers, who were men of high standing, eacli having 
before been elected to the office of Vice Governor of the Colony, as 
commissioners to negotiate a peace between the Veys and Condoes. 
While they were at Bo-poro, the chief town of the Condo nation, 
they stated that human flesh was oflered in the market for food. 

In 1833, I made a lour sixty or seventy miles, to a king north-e;ist 
of the Bassa Cove Colony. My purpose was to proceed several 
hundred miles, but the king resolutely refused leave, and no bribe or 
importunity prevailed to change his decision. The reason assigned 
was, that as I came with letters from the Governor, the King was 
responsible for my safety, and the neighboring tribe, Pessa men, 
would kill and eat me. 

The missionaries from England to Coomassie, capital of Ashantee, 
stated in tiieir published journal, in 1841, that they saw men return- 
ing from the market with human limbs for food. 

Of the Gallinas, I know nothing from actual observation. I im- 
agine that Cape Mount would furnish you as good a point for a 
seldement. By occupying Gallinas, you would more surely exter- 
minate the greatest slave mart in western Africa. 

Very respectfully, yours, 

J. B. PINNEY. 

Nrw York, March 2, 1850. 



P A E T T H I E D . 



Our readers v;\\\ observe that we liave presented the leading inci- 
dents connected with the enslavement of the African race, and pointed 
out the threat advantages secured to them in the United States, over 
those afforded in any other country. The facts presented therein 
also show, that the work of Africa's redemption from barbarism has 
been encouragingly commenced by our Colonization scheme. It is 
natural, therefore, that we should cast about to see whether the im- 
pelling forces, tending to promote and perfect this great work, possess 
sulKcient power to insure its success. For it must be confessed, that, 
in view of the vastness of the work to be accomplished — including 
the secular and religious education of perhaps more than one hundred 
and sixty millions of savage men — if no more numerous agencies can 
be Jjrought to the execution of the task, than tiie noble little band of 
Liberians, hope would almost sicken and die, in contemplating the 
length of time that must elapse before civilization and tiie gospel can 
be made to reach the whole population of Africa. 

In tracing the causes now in operation, which must rnpidly propel 
the work of Africa's civilization, we iind that tlie facts may be brouijht 
most forcibly to view, by contrasting the present relations of Free 
Lal)or to Slave Labor, in the cultivation of those tropical and semi- 
irnpical products, upon which slave labor has been and is now chiefly 
employed. 

We may be told — indeed wc have already been warned by a 
frioiid, to whom the statistics have been shown — that by arraying such 
fiicts, before the public, as we have collated, we shall greatly strengthen 
slavery. But we must beg leave to say, that we apprehend no such 
residts. The facts are such as the friends of <f1frican freedom, every 
johire, should know, to enable them to adopt some practical and 
rj/lricnt remedy for the erils of the slave trade and slavery. It is 
not necessary to puiilish the fact to the slaveholder of Cuba and 
Urnzil, that free labor, in die English and French West Indies, has 
(11(1; 



Jnlrodudion. Ill 

failed to supply to commerce an amount of tropical commodities 
equal to what had been furnished by slave labor before emancipation 
They already know this fact. Slaveholders, whether engaged in 
the production of cotton, sugar, or coffee, have known it, and profiled 
by it. The slave trader, also, has known the result of West India 
emancipation, and has quadrupled his business and his profits by 
possessing that knowledge. And shall the Philanthropist, alone, be 
debarred from knowing truths of such moment? 

The facts which we shall present may be unwelcome to some, yet 
they cannot be controverted. They may detract somewhat from the 
honors claimed by many who boast of their success in checking the 
progress of slavery, and may prove that they were more benevolent 
than wise, but it cannot be avoided. The day has come for decisive 
action upon the subject of the suppression of the slave trade, and the 
civilization of Africa. All schemes hitherto adopted have signally 
failed. The wisest statesmen have been baffled and defeated in their 
attempts. It is time, therefore, that a review of the actions of the 
past should be taken, and the results spread out before the public. In 
the execution of this task, if faithfully performed, it is believed that 
there may be found some common ground upon which all the friends 
of Africa and of humanity may cordially cooperate. 

The evidence which we have been enabled to collect upon this 
subject, is all from undoubted authorities, and we believe will clearly 
establish the following propositions: 

I. That Free Labor, in tropical and semi-tropical countries, is tailing 
to furnish to the markets of the world, in any thing like adequate 
quantities, those commodities upon which slave labor is chielly 
employed. 

II. That the governments of England, France, and the United States, 
at the present moment, are compelled, from necessity, to consume 
slave labor products, to a large extent, and thus still continue to be 
the principal agents which aid in extending and perpetuating slavery 
and the slave trade. 

III. That the legislative measures adopted for the destruction of the 
slave trade and slavery, especially by England, have tended to 
increase and extend the systems they were designed to destroy. 

IV.. That the governments named, cannot hope to escape from the 
necessity of consuming the products of slave labor, except by call- 
ing into active service, on an extensive scale, the free labor of 
countries not at present producing the commodities upon which 
slave labor is employed. 

V^. That Africa is the principal field where free labor can be made 
to compete, successfully, with slave labor, in the production of 
exportable tropical commodities. 



11- J'rcxntt liclalions of Free Labor to Slave. Labor. 

VI. That tlicre are moral forces and commercial considerations now 
in operation, which will, necessarily, impel Christian governmems 
to exert their influence for the civilization of Africa, and the pro- 
motion of the prosperity of the Republic of Liberia, as the prin- 
cipal agency in this great work ; and that in these facts lies our 
enconragement to persevere in our Colonization efforts. 

V'll. That all these agencies and influences being brouglit to bear 
upon the civilization of Africa, from the nature of its soil, climate, 
products, and population, we are forced to believe that a mighty 
people will gltimatcly rise upon that continent, taking rank with 
the most powerful nations of the earth, and vindicate the character 
of the African race before the world. 

Not the least interesting result, growing out of the investigations 
upon which we are entering, when taken in connection with those of 
our two preceding lectures, is the conviction that has been produced 
in our own mind, and which we believe will be made upon all, that 
England and the United States, the two governments at present most 
capable of exerting the greatest moral influcMce over Africa, and of 
calling into activity her latent l)ut nfiaiit energies, are at this moment 
involved in positions of so mucli emi)arrassment, in consequence of 
their liaving been connected with the slave trade and slavery, that 
tiiey cannot extricate themselves, but by the civilization of Africa. 

France, also, in tlie case of her former colony of Ilayti, has had 
poured out to her a portion of the cup of bitterness, which, it seems, 
must be pressed to the lips of all tlie nations who have participated 
in oppressing Africa. 13y her late act of emancipation, in her ro- 
niainiiiij tropical colonies, France has still farther embarrassed herself, 
and, like England and the United States, must soon be compelled 
either to supply herself almost exclusively with slave-grown cotton, 
anil other tropical products, or lend her aid in promoting free labor 
cultivation in tropical Africa. 

In this remarkable condition of things, we are reminded of the 
great trudi, that Cod presides among the nations, and overrules their 
actions to promote his own purposes of judgment and of riiercrj to 
mankind, and that governments, like iiulividuals, are hindered in 
their designs here and have free progress there, only so far as corres- 
])onds willi his great scheme of ilisi)layiiig his hatred of sin, vindica- 
ting his justice, and of maMih^siing his love to a fallen world, and his 
determination to redeem it to himself. 

A brii'f review of some of the leading events, relating to the 
ac-lion of the nations of Europe, in their connection with the slave 
trade and slavery, will bring us to the statement of the facts upon 
which we base our propositions. 

Tlie records of history put it beyond all question, that the rapid 
rise of Creat Britain, during the 18th century, which secured to her 
the superiority over other nations in naval power, in commerce, and 
ultimately in manufactures, was due, principally, to her having 



Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 113 

acquired by the treaty of Utrecht, 1713, tlie nionopoly of the slave 
trade. The traffic in slaves being, by this treaty, placed under tlie 
control of England, her rivals were deprived of the means of supply- 
ing slaves to their tropical possessions, excepting through her mer- 
chants, while slie could add to her colonies any number required by 
the planters. And when we call to mind the fact, that the average 
period of life of the imported African slave, as a profitable laborer in 
the West India colonies, is not over seven years, it will be seen that 
tliis treaty most cfTectually crippled the rivals of England, and of ne- 
cessity gave to her, as is the boast of McQueen, the principal monop- 
oly of tlie markets of the world for her West India tropical products. 
And, indeed, so seriously were the other powers affected by this 
measure, that in 1739, Spain paid to Great Britain a half million of 
doHars to secure a release of her monopoly for the remaining four 
years to which it extended ; and thus the nations of Europe once 
more became equal participants in this unholy commerce. 

A true idea of the immense value of England's commercial inter- 
ests, ivhich ivere based ttpon the slave trade and slavery, may be 
learned from the fiict, that in 1807, the export products of her West 
India possessions employed 250,000 tons of English shipping, and 
that these islands sustained a population which consumed annually 
$17,500,000 worth of British manufactures.* It was the possession 
of such resources as these, coupled with her East India acquisitions, 
that enabled England, wliose navy at the opening of tlie 18th century 
was one thousand guns less than that of France, to increase it in one 
hundred years to near its present extent, and shortly after the begin- 
ning of the present century, to bid defiance to the combined oppo- 
sition of the powers of Europe. But it must not be forgotten, that 
much of this wealth, securing to England such prosperity and such 
glory as she attained, was wrung from African sinews in her West 
India colonies. 

But now begins the era when the power of Great Britain is to 
become arrayed on the side of African freedom. The year 1808 
terminated the connection of both Great Britain and the United 
States with the slave trade. Whatever may be said of the motives 
prompting these governments to this act, it must be admitted, that a 
great woik of philanthropy was accomplished. But its proliiliition 
by these powers, unfortunately, left tlie monopoly of the traffic in 
slaves in the hands of Spain and Portugal, who prosecuted it with 
the greatest activity, and soon made the soil of Cuba and of Brazil to 
groan beneath the cultivation of those exportable tropical products 
which England had so successfully commenced, and so advantage- 
ously prosecuted. Being then in its infancy, the government of the 
United States could exert but litde influence upon other nations, and, 
consequently, the control of this great question rested with England. 
It was a capital error in her policy, to neglect securing an abandon- 
ment of the slave trade by the other European governments. Their 

* Blackwood's I\Png., ]048, p. o. 



114 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 

success in rivaling her in tropical cultivation, totrctlier u'itli the sub- 
sequent legislative errors of CJreat Ih-itain, and the consequent de- 
struction of the prosperity of her West India colonies, has been fulljr 
discussed in our first lecture. Since its publication, however, many 
additional facts have been ascertained, and many new developments 
have been made, in connection with English and French West India 
emancipation, which enable us to understand more clearly its work- 
ings, and to foresee more certainly the final efiects of that great work 
of philanthropy upon the African race. 

The prohibition of the slave trade, and the emancipation of her 
West India slaves,* gready embarrassed the commercial interests of 
England, and forced her to grapple with the giant evils of the slave 
trade and slavery, and to attempt their destruction. But each step 
taken, after tlie prohibition of the slave trade, while it certainly pro- 
moted, localli/, the cause of human liberty, dealt a death-blow to some 
of the vital interests of the government. And, as if tiie Almiiihty 
liad designed to record, in letters of living liglit, his disapproval of the 
motives prompting England to enslave the African race, these blows 
have fallen upon the identical interests which had been created and 
built up by the slave trade and slavery, viz: her West India sugar, 
cotton, and coffee cultivation, and the markets for her manufactures 
which these islands afforded. 

Previous to 1808, England's West India colonies were supplied 
with laborers from Africa, by means of the slave trade. The slaves 
in these islands numbered 800,000, in that year; but in 1834, when 
their emancipation had been efiected, there were only 700,000. t 
This diminution of the slaves, while it very seriously afiecled the 
exports from the colonies, served to reveal the true character of \\'est 
India slavery, and the means by which colonial prosperity had been 
sustained, and can only be accounted for from overworkin<j, and tlie 
great disparity of the sexes always consequent upon tlie supply of 
laborers by the slave trade.+ 

After the supply of slave labor had been cut olT, by the prohibition 
of the slave trade, it was discovered that a yast decrease of exports 
was taking place in the colonics, 'i'he remedy proj)Osed for this evil 
was emancipation ; by means of which it was conceived that the lib- 
erated slaves would, as freemen, perform twice the labor that had been 
wrung out of them while under the lash, and also that douliie the 
(juantity tiiat had been supplied, of British manufacUires, while in 
slavery, woidd be required to clothe tlicm if free.§ Such a conceit 
as this could never have originateil but in a mind entertaining unsound 
views of iuiman nature, and unacquainted with the impossibility of 
controlling, l)y moral suasion, a half-civilized or savage people, and of 
inducing them to give uj) long-established haints. But the scheme 
was adopted, and England committed her second legislative error in 



• See Tart 1, for a full (hscussiorj of fliis subject. 
+ See l^ife of Hiix'.oii, and our First Part, p. 41. 
} Si'C I'art 1 , p. -1 1 . • ^ Si-e I'art I , p. ."JO. 



Frcsoit Kdaliona of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 115 

anli-slavcry ellbrt. 'J'he enmncipatioii of ihe West India slaves 
was decreed in 1833, and fully exocnted in 1838. 

The movements of France in relation to African freedom, must 
also be noticeil, to obtain a clear view of the present relations of free 
hibor to slave labor. The history of the island of St, Domingo sup- 
plies materials of great interest upon this snl)ject. The French por- 
tion of that island, in 1789, consisting of 30,826 whites, and 27,548 
free colored persons,* had 480,000 slaves! employed in agriculture, 
and furnished three-fifths of the produce of all the French West India 
colonies, amounting in value to more than $50,000,000, and consumed, 
of French manufactures, $49,430,000. :}: The Spanish part of the 
island employed in agriculture only 15,000 slaves. § 

The political troubles of St. Domingo began in 1790, between the 
mulattoes and the whites, the slaves remaining industrious, quiet, and 
orderly. But in August, 1792, the slaves joined in the rebellion, and 
the massacre of the whites was commenced. The most tlreadful 
scenes of cruelty and bloodshed continued to be enacted until 1801, 
Avhen a constitution was adopted, and the island, under the name of 
Hayii, formally proclaimed an independent neutral power. At the 
close of this year, Bonaparte made an effort to reconquer the island, 
and, in order to succeed, the French general, Le Clerc, first attempted 
to restore the planters to their former authority over the negroes, 
many of whom, in the preceding struggles, had been granted their 
freedom ; but, failing in this, he was forced, as a last resort, on the 
25th of April, 1802, to "proclaim liberty and equality to all the in- 
habitants, without regard to color." Th.e Haytien chieftains, Tonis- 
sant, Dessalines, Christophe, &c., being immediately deserted by the 
blacks, were forced to submit, and the French sovereignty was again 
recognized throughout Hayti, As a first step to deprive the people 
of their efficient leaders, Le Clerc seized Touissant and his family, in 
the night, about the middle of May, and hurried them on board a ves- 
sel, which sailed immediately for France.^ This act of perfidy at 
once aroused the population to resistance, and the French, after a loss 
of 40,000 men, by disease and war, were compelled to capitulate, 
Nov., 1803, and, with a remnant of the army, of only 8,000 men, 
beg leave to depart from tlie island. Dessalines now assumed the 
authority, and a general massacre of the remaining French inhabitants 
took place.* ■•■ 

Froui this period, 1803, dates the independence of Ilayti, Its 
population was, at this time, 348,000.tt Christophe was declared 
king in 1811. Petion succeeded him and died in 1818, when Bojer 
came into power and annexed the Spanish part of the Island. From 
this period until 1843, when Boyer abdicated, the Island enjoyed a 
fair di^gree of tranquility. The legislafion was rigidly directed to 

* Westminster Rev., 1850, p. 2G1. t Macgregor, p. 1152. 
X Blackwood's Mag., 18 18, p. 6. § Macgregor, p. 1152. 

IT Confined to a loathsome dungeon, he died the next year. 
** See Life of Benjamin Luudy, and also Macgregor. 
tt Macgregor, p. 1152. 



116 Present Relations of Free. Labor to Sluve Labor. 

secure the iinlii.stry of tho iiihahitaiUs, but witli little success as m'G 
shall see. 

Ill 1848, the whole of the slaves in the rcinaininnr French colonies 
were emancipated by a decree of the Republic. Their population, 
including free persons and slaves, we find stated as follows :* 



Coloiiii'S. 


Free. 


Slaves. 

75,330 
89,349 
62,154 


Colonies: 


Free, 


Slaves. 


Martinique, ..(1846), 
Gaudaloupe,. . .(do), 

Bourban, (do), 

Nossi Be and 
Nossi Cumba, .(do) 


47,352 
40,428 
45,512 


Nossi Falii and 
Nossi Mitsou, (1S4G), 
St. Mary Majr- 

dalene, (do), 

Senegal (1845), 

Algiers, (estimate). 


14,512 

3,465 
8,427 


7,693 

2,415 
10,113 
10,000 


Total, 






159,696 


257,059 













We are now enabled to state the amount of tlie colored popula- 
tion, in the English and French colonies, to whom freedom has 
been secured, and upon whom, since their emancipation, free labor 
tropical cultivation has devolved. It was as follows : 

British West Indies, . . . 1834, 700,000 

Havti, 1804, 34-^,000 

Otlier French Colonics, 1848, _25^000 

Total, 1,30.5','000 

Here we shall terminate our preliminary historical retrospect and 
proceed to demonstrate our first proposition, which is this : 

I. That free labor, in tropical and semi-tropical countries, is failing 
to furnish to the markets of the world, in anything like adequate 
quantities, those commodities upon wliich slave labor is cliieHy 
employed. 

Wc shall commence with the British West Indies. The following 
table embraces the exports from Jamaica alone. We cannot ascer- 
tain the amount exported from the whole English West India col- 
onie.><, including the period of the slave trade. But as Jamaica is 
much the largest and most important Island, and as nearly the same 
results have followed in all the islands, it may justly be taken as the 
type of the whole, and as fully exhibiting tlu; inlluence which the 
IcL'islation of the motlier country, on the sulject of the slave trade 
and slavery, in its several stages of progress, has exerted upon her 
own commerce and manufactures, and upon the prosperity of the 
colonies. 'J'he quantities stated are the average annual exports for 
j)eri()(ls nf five years each, embracing tlie last five years of the slave 
Ira.lc, the last five of slavery, and the first five of freedom. \ We 

•Aiitl-Siavery Reporter. 

tWhcro llio sugar is given In hogsheads, wc have reduced it to pounds, csti- 
Dialing the hlid. at 1600 IIih. nott. 



Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 117 

are also enabled to bring down the results to the close of 1848. 
including the three last years separately. 



Years of Exports. 


lbs Sugar. 


P. Rum. 

50,426 
35,505 
14,185 
14,395 
18,077 
20,194 


lbs Coffee. 


Ann. Value. 


Ann. average, 1803 to 1807* 

1829 to 1833* 

" " 1839 to 1843* 

" exports 1846+ 

1847+ 

1848+ 


211,139,200 
152,564,800 
67,924,800 
57,956,800 
77,686,400 
67,539,200 


23,625,377 
17,645,602 
7,412,498 
6,047,150 
6,421,122 
5,684,921 


$19,263,105 

13,957,390 

6.066,420 









«Blackwood's Mag., 1848, p. 225. 

+Litters Living Age, 1850, JS^o. 309, p. 125. — Letters of Mr. Bigelow. 

We add also the exports from British Guiana, because it includes 
the article of cotton, and exhibits the decline in its production.* 



Years. 


lbs. Sugar. 


Pun. Rum. 


Ck"s. Molas. 


lbs. Cotton. 


Coffee, lbs. Dutch, 


1827 
1830 
18.33 
1836 
1839 
1843 


113,868,800 

111,248,200 

101,464,000 

91,427,200 

61,585,600 

57,180,800 


22,362 
32,939 
17,824 
24,202 
16,070 
8,296 


28,226 
21,189 
44,508 
37,088 
12,134 
24,937 


6,361,600 
2,169,200 
1,479,600 
1,278,400 
541,600 
9,600 


8,063,752 
9,502,756 
5,704,482 
4,801,352 
1,583,250 
1,428,100 



The rate at which the cultivation of cotton has declined in the 
British West Indies, is indicated by the imports of that article from 
them into England, in the periods stated below, t 



1S29 


1S30 


1831 


1S32 


18:33 


lfc34 


1S40* 


4,640,414 


3,449,247 


2,401,685 


2,040,428 


2,084,826 


2,296,525 


427,529 



*McQ,ueen, see Lecture, 1. p. 37. 

The total amount of the imports of sugar and coffee, into England, 
from all her JVest India Colonies, but not embracing the period of 
the slave trade, were as follows :J 



Years of importation. 



Ann. aver, in the 5 yrs, 1827 to 1831, 
" " « « 1832 to 1836, 

'< '< " " 1837 to 1841, 

«< " " « 1842 to 1846, 

In tlie year 1847, 

" 1848.§ 



lbs. Sugar. 

448,765,520 
411,869,056 
313,570,144 
277,2,52,400 
358,379,952 
313,306,112 



26,670,601 

19,904,536 

13,473,389 

7,985,1 5.S 

6,770,792 



*B!ackwood's Mag., 1848, p. 225. +See table of imports, p. 16, of this Part. 
jWestminster Review, 1850, p. 279. ^London Quar. Review, 1850, p. 97. 



118 Vresent liclallons of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 



" lu 1831 tlic Briiisli AVcst India Colonics produced 459,022,600 
lbs. of sugar;" being nearly eleven niillious of pounds more than llie 
average of that and liie preceding four years. 'I'liis amount seems lo 
have been sulTicient for the home consumption, because the importa- 
tion of 05,320,192 lbs. of foreign sugar, during tiiat year, ivas for 
re-export onh/.* But in 1818, such had been the increased con- 
sumption of that article, in the seventeen years which had elapsed, 
that the imports of sugar amounted to 769,004,410 His., of which 
there was taken for consumption 690,213,552 Ibs.t Of this amount 
the British West Indies supplied only 313,306,112 lbs,! and 229,748,- 
096 lbs. were of foreign alave grown sugar.§ We shall here close 
our statements in relation to the failure of free labor cultivation in 
the British ^Yest India Colonies, and turn to those of France. 

Tlie following statistical tal)le of exports from Hayti,^ tells, but 
too forcilily, the results of emancipation upon the commercial pros- 
perity of that Island, and shows the magnitude of tlie loss sustained 
by France in having this colony wrested from her. It includes the 
exports of the three principal products j'rom 1789 to 1841. 



Years. 


lbs. Sugar. 


lbs. Co lie e. 


lb.s. Colloii. 


Rcinnrks. 


1789 


141,089,031 


70,835,219 


7,004,274 


Island tranquil. 


1790 


l(i3,31i<,''10 


6S. 15 1,1^0 


6,2S6,126 


Wli'sand .Mill, at war. 


LSOl 


18,534,112 


43,420,270 


2,480,340 


Slaves freed in 1793. 


1818 


5,443,765 


26,065,200 


474,118 


Boycr in power. 


1819 


3,790,300 


29,240,919 


216,103 


li (( 


1820 


2,517,289 


35,137,759 


346,839 


(( (( 


1821 


600,934 


29,925.951 


820,563 


i< <( 


1822 


200.451 


24,235,372 


592,368 


<< K 


182:} 


M.OriO 


3;i,>()2,837 


332,256 


(( <( 


1824 


5.106 


41,269,084 


1,028,045 


(( .c 


1825 


2,020 


36,0.34,300 


815,697 


It 1( 


1826 


32,864 


32,1^-9,784 


620,972 


" " 


1835 


1,097 


4^,352,371 


1,649,717 


E.x's for whole Island. 


183(i 


16,199 


37,662,672 


1,072,-555 




1837 




30,845,400 


1,013,171 


« « 


1S38 




49,->20,241 




.1 <t 


1839 




7,8^'9,092 


1,635,420 


(( (< 


1840 


741 


46.126,272 


922,575 


Republic. 


1841 


1 ,363 


.34,114,717 


1,591,454 


11 


1848 


very little 


33,600,0001 


■' 





*Xo statement yet received. +Caini)l)ell, Aniott it Co. 

The assertion of Independence by the people of Ilayti. and the 
almost immediate al)andoninont of sugar cultivation in the Island, at 
once deprived France of lliree-fifths of her colonial imports of that 
article. To supply the deficiency, the Emperor Napoleon made the 
:itt('m|)t, on a grant] sc.ile, to produce beet-root sugar in France itself. 
But this experiment did n6t meet the public wants, and the cultivation 

* London Quur. Review, 1850, p. 97. +Ib. p. 88. Jib. p. 97. §Ib. p 88. 
IT.Mucgrejrnr, Loiuloii Kd. 1847. 



Present Felations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 119 

of sugar, by slave labor, was necessarily rapidly increased in llie 
remaining French colonies. The e^lave trade being actively prose- 
cuted at tiiat period, it afforded a full supply of slaves to the French 
planters, and the exports of sugar, from iier remaining colonies, must 
have rapidly increased, as we find, that in the lirst nine months of 
1847, tiiey had increased to an amount exceeding by five millions 
and a half of pounds, the exports from Hayli, for the whole year, 
in 1790. 

Tile effects of the recent emancipation of her slaves by the French 
Republic* bids fair to prove as disastrous to the commerce of her col- 
onies and to the interests of France, as were the lesults of the rebel- 
lion of Hayti. We find it stated, in the current news of the day, 
that, "according to official data, the amount of sugar imported into 
France, from her colonies in Guiana, the West Indies, and the Island 
of La Reunion, has fallen from 108,884,177 ibs., the quantity im- 
ported during the first nine months of 1847, to 96,929,336 lbs., for 
the same period of tlie year 1849, being a falling off, for the nine 
months, of 71,854,841 lbs. 

W^e wish here to state distinctly that our leading object in pre- 
senting, so fully the evidences of the failure of free labor tropical 
cultivation, is not to prove that slavery should not be abolished ; be- 
cause that would involve the absurdity of insisting, that one-third the 
world should be enslaved, to secure to the other two-thirds their 
coffee, sugar, and cotton, at a reduced price. But our aim is to 
impress the great truth on the mind of the christian ^whWc, that mere 
personal freedom is insirfficient to elevate and ennoJAe an nnen- 
lightened people, and that intellectual and moral culture should 
accompany all emancipation schcjnes, othericise they must fail in 
the acconiptislmient of the great good ivldch personcd freedom, 
■under other circumstances, secures to man. 

Having now presented the principal instances where free labor has 
failed in tropical cultivation, upon territory formerly employing slave 
la' or, we may pause and slate the extent of that failure, so far as to 
include the articles of coffee, cotton, and sugar. But as we have not 
had access to any statement of the exports from the whole of the 
British West India Islands, for the period of the slave trade, we must 
take those of Jamaica as the type of the whole. From 1807 to 1831 
the exports of sugar fell off, in Jamaica, 38,yYo P*^'" cent., and that of 
coffee 33, y\. By adding this amount to the exports from all tlie 
Islands in 1831, will give us their probable exports in 1807. The 
article of cotton cannot be brought under this rule, for want of accu- 
rate data, previous to 1829. 

The deficit of free labor tropical cultivation, as compared witli 
slave labor while sustained by the slave trade, including the territorial 
lunits upon which England and France have liberated their bondsmen, 
stands as follows : — a starding result, truly, to those who expected 
emancipation to work well commercially. 

» See page 122. 



120 Present Jielutions of Free Lahor to Slave Labor. 
Contrast of Slave Labor and Free Labor Exports from the West Indies. 



Slave Labor. 


Years. 
1807 

1790 


lbs. Sugar. 


lbs. Coffee. 


lbs. Collon 


Brltisli West Indies, 

Hayti 


636,025,643 
163,31b,8l0 


31.610,764 
76,«35,219 


17,000,000* 
7,286,126 


Total, 


809,344,453 


108,245,983 


24,2Sr. 126 








Free Labor 

British West Indies 

Hayti, 


1848 
1848 


313,306,112 
very little 


6,770,792 
34,1 14,7 17t 


427,529t 
l,59l,454i 




Total, 




313,306,112 


40,885,509 


2,018,983 








Free Labor Deficit, 





490,038,341 


67,360,474 


22,267,113 



» 1800. 1 1840. i 1847. 

Wc liave not included the French L'^hnids emancipated in J848, 
Iiecause the information posses.scd in relation to them is not sufli- 
ciently accurate. When tlie decline of free lahor, in them, readies 
it.s maximum, at least another 100,000,000 lbs. of sugar must be 
added to the sum of free labor Hiilures.* 

To understand llie bearing- which this decrease of production, by 
Free Labor, has upon tlie interests of the African people, it must bo 
remembered tiial the consumption of sugar has not diminished, but 
increased, vastly, and that for every hogshead that free lal)or sugar is 
itiniiniahcd, a hogshead of slave labor sugar is demanded to mippli/ 
ils place ; and more than this : for every additional hogshead de- 
manded by tlie increased consumption of sugar, an additional one, of 
slave labor production, ??iu*f be furnished, because Uie world will not 
do without sugar. It must be noticed, also, that, at the pre.eent 
moment, the greater portion of all this double demand for sugar, falls 
upon tiie people of color. It seems to be a settled rule, that if the 
Alrican race will not supply to the world ils sugar, by vohinlaixj 
labor, receiving for tlieniselves all the profits on its ])roduction; then 
the world compels them to do it, by compulsory labor, and votes the 
whole profits to the white man who ap])lies the whij) that stimu- 
lates them to industry. 

These remarks will apply to coffee and cotton, also, or to any 
otiier exportable tropical commodity uj)oii which slave lalior is em- 
ployed. We now close our iiiv(>stiijations in relation to our first pro- 
po>ition, believing that we have J'ully demonstrated its truthfulness, 
and shall proceed to the second. 

• Si-c I'arts First and Second, for our views of tlip c.iuses of the failure of 
Die type of free labor uliioh exists in the West Indies. 



Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 121 

II. That Christian governments, at the present moment, are compelled, 
from necessity, to consume slave labor products to a large extent, 
and thus still continue to aid in extending and perpetuating slavery 
and the slave trade. 



The discussion of our first proposition closed with a statement of 
the deficit of free labor tropical cultivation, within the territorial limits 
upon which the emancipation of the slaves, formerly held in bondage 
by England and France, had been effected. 

In discussing the second proposition, we shall first ascertain the 
extent of the consumption of tropical commodities, by the three gov- 
ernments most deeply interested in the questions of slavery and the 
slave trade, (England, France, and the United States,) and then the 
sources from which their supplies are obtained, and the proportions 
that are the product of free labor or of slave labor. And, first, of 
Caff on : 

The manuf^icture of raw cotton into fabrics for clothing, was intro- 
duced into England at an early period ; but it was confined chiefly to 
operatives in families, until about 1785, when the discovery of the 
power of steam, and the improvements in machinery, gave to manu- 
facturing industry an impulse that has extended it with almost mirac- 
ulous rapidity. 

The best information that can be gained from the English custom- 
house books, gives from one to two millions of pounds of cotton as 
the amount annually imported between 1697 and 1751. In 1764, 
the imports had reached 3,870,000 lbs., and in 1784, over 11,480,000 
pounds.* 

Previous to 1795, the supplies of cotton were obtained by England 
from the West Indies, South America, India, and the Levant. t It 
was not until 1791, that any cotton was shipped to England from the 
United States. In this year, 189,316 lbs. were sent over, and in the 
year following only 138,328 lbs.:]: 

The importadon of cotton into England maintained a nearly equal 
annual progressive increase, from 1784 to 1805, when it had reached 
60,000,000 lbs., and in 1817, near 125,000,000 lbs,, a small part of 
which (8,156,000 lbs.) was re-exported. § 

The quantity of cotton consumed by Great Britain, from 1817, the 
period last stated, to 1836, is embraced in the following table, which 
is extracted from that very able work. Porter's Progress of the 
Nation. That from 1840 to 1849 is also added, and is taken from a 
very elaborate and valuable article in the London Economist,|| a pe- 
riodical that has no superior for accuracy. The whole table is one 
of great value in our discussion, and presents the important fact, that 



* McCullough's account of British Empire, Vol. I, p. 643. 

t lb., p. 648. t lb., p. 648. 

§ McCuUough, Vol. I, p. 649. 

U Supplement to London Economist, Jan. 5, 1850. 



122 



Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 



the consumption of cotton in England, in 1819, was 624,000,000 lbs.* 
The imports lor thi; year reached 755,'1()9,U08 lbs.; of which there 
were re-exported 98,8U.'1,53G lbs., leaving for home consumption 
050,575,-172 lbs.,t of wiiich only the quantity above stated was 
used within the year. 

Table exhibiting the quantity of Cotton annually consumed in England, from 
1818 to 1838, t and from 1840 to 1849.^ 



Years. 


Cotton, lbs. 


Yeae. 

'T828 


Cotton, lbs. 
217,860,000 


Years. 
1840~ 


Cotton, lbs. 


1818 


109,902,000 


517,254,400 


1819 


109,.') 16,000 j 


1629 


219,200,000 


1641 


460,367,200 


1620 


120,2r),'),000 


1630 


247,000,000 


1842 


477,339,200 


1S21 


129,(129,0110 


1631 


202,700,000 


1843 


555,214,400 


1822 


M.j,l!):i,OIIO 


18.32 


270,901), 01)0 


1644 


570,731,200 


1823 


151,110,000 


1833 


267,000,000 


1645 


026,496,000 


1824 


105,174,000 


1834 


303,000,000 


1846 


624,000,000 


1625 


1GG,631,000 


1835 


326,407,692 


1647 


442,416,000 


1p2G 


150,213,000 


1836 


363,6.^4,232 


1648 


602,160,000 


1827 


197,200,000 


1838* 


460,000,000 1 


1649 


024,000,000 



"Lectures of George Thompson, Esq., England, 1339, p. 03. 

The cotton consumed in the United States, in 1848, including an 
estimate of that manufactured in the cotton-growing States, and in 
tliose along tlie tributaries of the INlississippi, estimating the bales at 
4U0 lbs. each, was 200,000,000 Ibs.jl Our average animal increased 
consumption of cotton is 14,000,000 Ibs.,^ which, for 1849, will aug- 
ment the quantity consumed in the United States to 274,000,000 lbs. 

The consumption of cotton in France, in 1832, was 68,725,961 lbs., 
and in 1833, 72,767,551 lbs.** The exports from the United States 
to France, in 1849, were 151,340,000 Ibs.tf The whole amount 
delivered for consumption that year was 150,000,000 lbs., of which 
147,000,000 lbs. were from the United States, and the remaining 
9,000,000 lbs. from other countries,^ — from Brazil, say 3,000,000 lbs. 

Tiie whole amount of cotton taken for consumption, in 1849, in 
the remaining continental countries, was 129,920,000 lbs., of which 
12H,800,()00 lbs. were from the United Slates, §§ leaving of that from 
other countries, oidy 1,020,000 lbs. 

'J'he consumption of cotton from the United Slates, on the whole 
continent of Europe, now reaches 280,000,000 lbs.|||| 



• III the tubic of tlie Economist, published bi-fore tlie whole consumpfion of 
1">49 hi\il been u-scertaineii, it is estiniuted at 659,964,000 lbs., tlic editor luiviiijj 
tui'.cn, as his data, the con.sinnption of the first eleven inontli.s of the year. Pub- 
K-qncnlly, the actual quantity was ascertained and publislied, and we havo 
chan^jed the figures to the true amount. 

+ London Iv-oiioniist, 11^50, p. 195. } Porter's Progress of the Nation. 

^ Sujiplement to llie London Economist, Jan. 1650, p. 36. 

II New Orleans Bulletin. 

IT .Supplement to London Economist, Jan. 1650, p. 35. 

•• I'orler'H Progress. i* Loniiou Economist, 1850, p. 103. 

t+ Sco page 123. {jjl 8up. to L. Econ., Jan. 1850, p. 35. 

§§ London Econ., 1850, p. 103. 



Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 123 

We are now prepared to state tlie amount of cotton, from all 
sources, actually consumed by the United States and Europe, in 
1849. It was as follows : 

Great Britain, lbs. . 024,000,000 

France and other Continental countries, . . . 285,920,000 

The United States, 270,000,000 

Total Cotton Consumption, lbs. 1,179,920,000 

The next point of inquiry is, Whence are these supplies of cotton 
obtained .' " Next to the United States, but at a very great distance 
from them, Brazil, the East Indies, and Egypt, are the countries which 
furnisli the largest supplies of cotton for exportation." * The ad- 
vantages possessed by the United States, in the growing of cotton, 
and the superior qualities of our staple, render it difficult, if not 
impossible, for the other countries producing that article, to compete 
with us in its cultivation. The subjoined table is full of instruction 
on this subject. 

Imports of Cotton into Great Britain, during each of the six years, endinj with 
1834, specifying the countries whence imported, the re-exports, and quantity left 
for consumption.'^ 



Countries vvlience 
Imported. 



Germany, Holland, ) 

Belgium, ) 

I'ortugal. Proper, 

Italy and Ilaluui Islands, 
Malt 



Turkey and Continent- ) 
al Greece, J 

Eg-ypl, (Portson iVled- ) 
itenanean.) J 

IMaurilins, 

Kust Indies and Ceylon, 

riiilipine Islands, 

Untisli N. A. Colonies,- 

Britisli West Indies,- •• • 

Ilayti, 

Cul)a and other foreign ) 
West Indies. ] 

U. Slates 01' America,- 

Colombia, 

Brazil, 

Chill & Rio de la Plata. 

Viirious other countries. 

I'eru, 



Total imported, ••• 
Amount exported,- 



Left for consumption. 



)bs. 
7 

• • 27,893 



-.-.61,284 
..-.91,905 

. -5,894,480 

50.599 

-24.48L761 
-. . 16,011 
32.419 

- -4 640,414 

- • - 149,048 



lbs. 
. ■ • 77,135 

... 85,907 

15 

. . . . 27,073 

. . . 353,077 

■ 3,048,fi33 
• --•14,050 
■12,481,7()) 
. . . . '.i9,G7a 

2,473 

.-3,429,247 
• . - 166,26ti 

.-••10,174 



. • - 1L'8,&96 
157.1S7 396'210.S85,35y 
.-• 697,564 •-- 221,381 
-23,878,386 -33.092,072 



- 1.931 
■ 09,378 



- 4.063 
45,029 



lbs. 



• • • 35,640 

• - 843,895 

• - 366,550 
-7,714,474 



25,805,153 
8,420 

• - 316,016 
■ -2,400,685 
■••251,179 



219,.333.628 
-•- 334.691 
• 31,695,761 



lbs. 

• •116,727 

• • • 59.050 

• • • 21 ,739 

• • • 28,063 

. • 289,779 

• 8.824,111 



•35,178.625 
- - - - 40,879 

7,158 

--2,040,428 
-•••59,413 

314 



219,756,753 

• • • 293,602 

• 20.109,560 
10,624 ...•• 3,729 

• •-no! 1,446 

57,027 1,194 



222 767,411 2G3,961.4.'52 283,674.853 
30,239,115 ■•6,534,976 -22,303,556 



192,478,296 255,426,476 266,.366.298 268,804,535 



:66.832.525 
-18.027,940 



1833. 



• • • 943.381 
15.708 

-••• 17.298 

- - • 433B9S 

• • • 553,364 



-32,755.164 
. - • • 37.908 
. •• 145,526 
• •2,0S4;862 
.••389,791 



237.596.758 
• • • 305,0:33 
-28,463.821 

378 

38 



303.656.S:3' 
-17,31)3 862 



286.292,955 



• • 5,524 

■ 826.458 



• 410,730 

• 444,437 



-32.920,805 



3 332 

-2,296.525 

■■-223,004 

3,794 



269.203.075 

• •1.004.340 

• 19,291.31)6 

• • • • 75.257 

• ■■ 154:839 
4.053 



326,875.425 
24.461,963 



302.413.462 



The following table, added to the above, affords all the information 
that is necessary to a full understanding of the question, whence the 
supplies of cotton are obtained: 



* McCulloiigh, Vol. I, p. 651. \lh. 



11!1 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 

Imports of cotton into Great Britain, from all foreign countries, presenting the an- 
nual average during periods of five years, from 1830 to 1849, inclusive.* 



1830 to 1834 
1835 to 1839 
1840 to J 844 
1845 to 1849 



5,510,000 

12,909,(;00 

9,43().^0() 

3,58G,400 



59,590,800 
51,474,800 
37,G9t:<,0(IO 
39,G54,800 



f-gyp'- 



7,959,600 
13,842,400 
1(5,(333,200 
17,9(57,200 



32,318,000 
57,012,000 
93,3b3,G()() 
71,940,b00 



247,350,400 

344,688,800 
464,226,400 
734,244,560} 



When the cotton of the Unite(i Stales had been foirly tested in 
England, it was found to be very much superior to that from tlie East 
Inihos. The seed of our cotton was, tliercforc, introduced into India, 
and its cultivation so far succeeded, as to warrant the belief that, with 
proper encouragement from government, it might be grown in any 
quantities. In 1839, a vigorous elfort was made, headed by George 
'riiompson, Esq.,§ to enlist Parliament in the enterprise. It was 
urged that all the elements of successful cotton cultivation existed in 
the East Indies, and that the English nation might soon obtain its 
supplies of cotton from that country, and repudiate that of the United 
States. 

The introduction to the American edition of the Lectures delivered 
by Thompson on tiiat occasion, which was written by Wm. Lloyd 
Garrison, contains the following sentences. || They sufficienUy indi- 
cate what were the anticipations of tlie advocates of the measure : 

" If England can raise her own cotton in India, at the paltry rate 
of a penny a pound, what inducement can she have to obtain her 
supply from a rival nation, at a rate six or eight times higher? It is 
stated that East India free labor costs three pence a day — African 
slave labor, two shillings ; that upward of 800,000 bales of cotton 
are exported from the United States, annually, to Enijland; and that 
the cotton trade of the United Slates willi England amounts to the 
enormous sum of $40,000,000 annually. Let that market be closed 
to mis slaveholding Republic, and its slave system must inevitably 
perish from starvation ! " 

Mr. Thompson, throughout the whole course of his lectures, seems 
nol to doul)t the success of East India cotton cultivation, and also liiatof 
sugar andcofl'ee,and that the result would be the destruction of the slave 
trade, and the downfall of slavery everywhere. lie thus exclaims :^ 

" 'I'he batUe-ground of freedom for the world is on the plains of 
Ilindoslan. Yes, my friends, do justice to India ; wave there the 
scc])ler of justice, and the rod of oppression falls from the hands 
of the slaveholder in America ; and the slave, swelling beyond the 

•Supplement to the London Economist, 1850, pp. 34, 35. — Bales estimated nt 
400 IbH. fiirh. 

tClii.'lly the Hritish Colonics. 

X We liiivc suhsliliitL'd the avcrngo imports of 1848 and 1849, from the l^nitud 
Slutes, inalcad of from 1845 to IhlO, because it gives a nearer approxiiiiation to 
the truth. lf^47, in the U. S., made only three-fourths of a crop, and it was 
the year of famine in (Jreat Urilain. 

^ Tlie great Abolitionist. || Lecture by Georpe Tiiompson, Esq., 1839, p. 9. 
IT Lecture, page 121. 



Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 125 

measure of his eliains, stands disentliralled, a free man, and an 
acknowledged brother ! " 

We need not trace the history of this effort to promote the cultiva- 
tion of cotton in India. It is of such recent occurrence, that al! 
intelHgent men are famiHar with the results. Paragraphs like the 
i'oUowing frequently meet the eye of the general reader. It is taken 
from a reliable periodical. 

"Late accounts from India [through the English press,^ represent 
tliat th(! attempts of the British capitalists, during the last two or 
three years, to cultivate cotton in the district of Dharwar, from which 
much was expected, have signally failed. In 1847-8, about 20,000 
acres were cultivated. It is now ascertained that the crop has rapidly de- 
creased, only 4,000 acres having been under cultivation the past year." 

It is umiecessary to discuss the causes operating in the East 
In(hes, to make it impossible to stimulate its free laborers much 
beyond their wonted rules of industry. Our views upon tliis ques- 
tion will be f(jund in our two former lectures, where we present the 
causes of the failure of West India free labor. We need but state, 
here, that the East Indies have only a Pagan civilization, which has 
long since attained its full maturity. Any efforts, therefore, aside from 
the introduction of Christianity, and a Christian civilization, or 
the reduction of the population to slavery, must fail in securing a 
much greater degree of industry than exists at present. If left to 
their own free will, all attempts to introduce improvements in agri- 
culture and manufactures, will probably result like the following effort 
made to improve their mode of plowing. Under the head of " Cot- 
ton in India," the London Times of the present year, says : 

"The one great element of American success — of American en- 
terprise — can never, at least for many generations, be imparted to 
India. It is impossible to expect of Hindoos all that is achieved by 
citizens of the States. During the experiments to which we have 
alluded, an English plow was introduced into one of the provinces, 
and the natives were taught its use and superiority over their own 
clumsy machinery. They were at first astonished and delighted at 
its effects, but as soon as the agent's back was turned, they took it, 
painted it red, set it up on end, and luorshipped it." 

Another anecdote, confirmatory of the impossibility of effecting a 
change of habits in the people of India, was told by the Rev. J. H. 
Morrison, missionary in India, during his late visit to this country. 
An English gentleman, resident in India, had commenced an improve- 
ment, requiring the removal of a large quantity of earth. Employing 
native laborers, they commenced the task in their usual way, by car- 
r\ ing die earth to the place of deposit, in baskets, upon their heads. 
Pitying them, and wishing to facilitate the work, he had a number 
of wheelbarrows constructed, and taken upon the ground. Showing 
the laborers how to use them, tlier appeared pleased with the nov- 
elty, and worked briskly. Gratified that he had relieved them from 
a toilsome system of labor, the gendeman left them to pursue their 
work. But on returnino- some davs afterwards, he was astonished 



12G Present Jhlalions of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 

and niorlified, to see them filling their wheelbarrows, and then, lifting 
the whole burden upon their heads, deliberately carrying it oil" as they 
had done their baskets. Sueh is Pagan stupidity and Pagan altach- 
nicnt to custom. 

The successful cultivation of cotton in the United States, and lh» 
belter adaptation of the lands in Cuba and Brazil, to the production 
of sugar and coffee, has led the planters of these two countries to 
devote their labor chiedy to the production of the last named com- 
modities. The preceding tables of imports into England, (page 10,) 
proves the truth of this statement, and shows a great diminution in 
the production of cotton, except in the United States. In reviewing 
tiie results in the several cotton-growing countries, the London Econ- 
omist remarks : "' 

" From Brazil, therefore, our annual supply has diminished nearly 
20,000,000 lbs. ; or if we compare the two extreme years of the 
series, 1830 and 18-18, the falling off is from 70,900,800 lbs. to 
40,097,000 lbs. or 30,bu0,000 lbs. 

" Tlie supply from Egypt, however, seems to have reached its 
maximum in 1845, in which year we received 32,537,000 lbs. This 
year it does not reacli half that amount. Moreover, this country, 
i'rom the peculiar circumstances of its government, is little to be 
relied upon, — the supply having varied from 10.1 10,000 lbs. in 1832, 
to 1,027,000 lbs. in 1833 ; and again, from 7,298,000 lbs. in 1842, 
to 26,400,000 lbs. in 1844. 

" For many years it was the custom of tlie Pacha of Egypt, to 
require a certain amount of cotton from his tenants, or, in fact, to 
compel them to pay the wlude, or a fixed portion of tlieir rent, in 
cotton. Under tliis forcing system, the cultivation was extensively 
introduced. Of late years, however, llie Fellahs have been allowed 
to grow the article, or not, at their option ; and such is their natural 
indolence and want of enterprise, that even where they still continue 
the growth, they do so in a very careless manner, t 

" Our su])ply from the East Indies varies enormously, from 30,- 
000,000 lbs. to 108,000,000 lbs. per annum, inasmuch' as ice only 
receive that proportion of the crop which our prices may divert from 
China, or [rum internal consninplion. 

" The summary of our supply, from all these quarters combined, is : 



1830 to 1834, 105,410,400 lbs. 
1835 to 1839, 130,088,000 lbs. 



1810 to 1844, 157,145.000 lbs. 
1845 to 1849, 133,120,800 lbs. 



"Tlie result of this inquiry, then, is, that our average annual sup- 
])ly from all quarters, except the United States, was, in the five years 
ending 1849, less l)y 2,943,200 ll)s. than in the five years ending 
1S39, and leas by 24,000,000 lbs. than in the five years ending 1844. 
Of this (liminiskcd supply, moreover, we have been exporting an 
inrretisinu; quantity, avcrairiMir, annually, in the last five years, 31,- 
080,000 lbs. against 27,300,000, annually, in the previous five years." 

• Siii>i>lcniuiit to Juii. 5, 1850, p. 34. + Jb. p. 3S. 



Present Relalions of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 127 



The imports of cotton into the United States, mostly from the 
Dutch West Indies, is very inconsiderable in amount, beinir, for 1818, 
only 317,742 lbs., or less than 800 bags, of which 51,000 lbs. were 
re-exported. 

Tiie exports of cotton from the United States, affords the key to 
the chief source of supply of that article to European countries. 

Exports of Cotton front the United States, to Foreign Countries, for tJu: years 18'lfi, 
1647, 1848, and 1849, the years ending June 30.* 



AVhither Exported. 



Russia, 

Prussia, 

Sweden and Norway,. . . 

Denmark 

Hanse towns, 

Holland 

Belgium, 

England, 

Scotland, 

Ireland, 

Gibralter, 

British Amer. Colonies,. 
France on the Atlantic, 
" Mediterranean, 

Spain, 

Cuba, 

Portugal, 

Italy, 

Sardinia, 

Trieste and Austrian ports 

Mexico, 

Cent. Repub. of America, 
China and South Seas, 



85,760 

Total, lbs 547,558,055 

Value, $42,767,341 



Lbs.— 18-46. Lbs.— 1847. Lbs.— 184 



4,292,080 



2,555,788 

32,287 

7,543,017 

3,849,859 

7,408,422 

326,365,971 

13,312,850 

6,379,746 

1,054,310 

47,380 

124,185,369 

7,867,480 

117,885 

10,102,969 

19,533 

11,212,093 

2,387,264 

13,382,043 

4,392 828 



5,618,365 



2,887,693 

660,732 

10,889,543 

1,978,324 

10,184,348 

338,150,564 

12,683,73a 

424,497 

90,199 

226,493 

98,421,966 

4,695,492 

12,313,658 

3,139,156 



8,720,716 

4,494,594 

11,780,673 



848,998 

"527,219,958 
$53,415,884 



10,266,911 

110,523 

4,978,024 

69,020 

17,420,498 

4,851,509 

15,279,676 

546,911,132 

25,091,965 



Lbs.— 184y < 



10,650,631 



7,030,305 

4,779 

13,844,494 

11,877,386 

28,113,309 

696,009,474 

38,700,8^4 

3,968,547 

5,725,812 

97,104 

144,481,949 

6,858,283 

23,285,804 

1,584,784 

240,895 

10,604,462 

6,053,707 

13,279,384 

2,208;704 

524,721 

760,661 

814,2747431 1026,6()2^269 
$61,998,294 $66,396,976 



133,202 

22,352 

129,203,272 

7,034,583 

19,323,425 

4,557,474 

774 

6,077,021 

2,514,304 

20,043,090 



12,953 



We must bring this discussion of the cotton question to a close. 
If we take the table of imports into England,! as the guide, it will 
be seen that she was importing, ainiually, during the last period 
named, ending with 1849, the following proportions of slave labor 
and oi free labor cotton : 

The product of Slave labor. 

From Brazil, 39,654,800 lbs. 

From United States, .... 734,244,500 " 

773,899,360 lbs. 

The product of Free labor. 

From Egypt 17,967,200 lbs. 

From East Indies 71,940,800 " 

From Miscellaneous, .... 3,586,400 " 

93,494,400 " 

England's excess of imports of slave labor cotton, 680,404,960 " 

* Reports of Sec. of Treas. of U. S. on Commerce and Navigation- 
t Pre.seut Part, page 120. 



128 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 

The actual consumption of cotton, by England, in 1849, as before 
stated, was 624,000,000 lbs. Of the imports of 133,149,200 lbs. * 
cotton not the growth of tlie United States, there were re-exported 
31,080,000 lbs.,t leaving thereof, for consumption in England, 101,- 
409,200 lbs. Deducting tliis amount from the quantity consumed in 
1849, leaves 522,530,800 lbs. as the amount of England's consump 
tion of cotton derived from the United States. 

But of the 101,469,200 lbs. above named, at least 30,000,000 lbs. 
must have been from Brazil, and consequently of slave labor origin, 
leaving for the English manufacturer, only 71,469,200 lbs. of free 
labor cotton. 

The result of this investigation may now be stated thus : 
Slave Labor Cotton consumed in 1849. 
By England, from Brazil, . . 30,000,000 lbs. 
By England, from United States, 522,530,800 " 
By France,| from United States, 147,000,000 " 
By France, from Brazil, say, 3,000,000 " 

By other continental countries, 

'from United States, . . . 128,800,000 " 
By United States, growth of 

United States, 270,000,000 ♦' 

Total slave labor consumption, 1,101,330,800 lbs. 

Free Labor Cotton consumed in 1849. 
By England, from all sources, 71,469,200 lbs. 

By France, say, 6,000,000 «' 

By other continental countries, || 1,120,000 " 

Total free labor consumption, 78,589,200 lbs. 

Grand total cotton consumption, 1,179,920,000 " 

That this exhibit of the cotton question is not an exaggerated 
statement, got up for effect, but is within the limits of the truth, will 
appear evident when the extent of the production of cotton is txiken 
inlo consideration. By the Custom House books of commercial 
nations, all imports and exports of merchandise are easily ascertained. 

The following statement, cmbrafing only the (juantity of cotton 
consumed in the United Slates and exported from it, and the amount 
imported into England from other countries than the United States, 
in 1849, will be sufficient for our purpose. 

Exports of cotton from the United States, . . 1,026,602,209 lbs 
Amount consumed in tlie United States, . . . 270,000,000 " 
Amtiunt imported into England from East Indies, 

Egypt, Brazil, &c., 133,120,800 " 

Total 1,429,723,069 " 

Amount included in our estimates, . . . 1,179,920,000 " 
Surplus over our estimates, 249,803,069 " 

• See tnblfi, piigc 120, jjresciit Part. t I'ri'seiit Part, p. 12ii. 

{ Present Part, p. 118. || London Ecououiist, 1850, p. 103 



Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 12[J 

After this exhibition of facts, we have no fears that the fairness of 
our statements will be called in question. Indeed, a close scrutiny 
will show that we have not pressed into the tables of slave grown 
cotton, all that we might have done. All the foreign imports of cot- 
ton, not the growth of the United States, that were not re-exported by 
England, are counted as consumed, thus reducing the proportion of 
the slave labor cotton of the United States by the amount of the 
ibr;ner remaining unconsumed. We wish it also to be noticed, thai 
we have included in the list of slave labor cotton consumed in Eng- 
land, in 1849, only 522,530,800 lbs. from the United States, while in 
that year, she imported of our cotton, 755,469,008 lbs., being an 
excess over the amount included in the quantity consumed, nearly 
equal to the surplus above stated, and proving that that surplus must 
be mosdy the product of slave labor. 

We may now safely place, in contrast, the figures representing the 
proportions of Free Labor and of Slave Labor Cotton consumed by 
the United States and Europe, in 1849, and claim, that, so far as this 
commodity is concerned, our second proposition is triumphantly 
sustained. Look at the figures : 

Total slave labor cotton consumption, . . . 1,101,330,000 lbs. 
Total free labor cotton consumption, . . . 78,589,200 " 

Excess of consumption of slave labor over free 

labor cotton, 1,022,741,600 " 

Your attention is now called to the article of Coffee. As England 
occupies the most prominent position upon the subject of African 
freedom, and is making the most determined struggles to stimulate 
free labor, and make it compete with slave labor, her connection with 
this question, as with all the others, becomes one of great interest. 
Up to 1825, a discriminating duty of 56 shillings per cwt. was levied 
upon coffee from British India, for the benefit of the English West 
India colonies. At that time, this duty was but litde felt, because, 
owing to the excessive duty levied upon all descriptions of cofl'ee, 
the consumption of the kingdom was below the supply from the 
West Indies, and the surplus had to seek a market elsewhere. In 
1825, the discriminating duty was reduced to 28 shillings the cwt. 
'i'he duty after this time stood thus : 

West India coffee paid 6f/. per lb., or 56s. per cwt. 

East India " " Qc/, " or 84s. " 
and all other kinds were, and still are, charged Is. ^d. per. lb., or 
i40s, per cwt,, amounting to a prohibition. 

The consumption of coflee in Great Britain, after these changes in 
the tariff", increased from 8,000,000 lbs., in 1824, to 22,000,000, in 
1830. The demand created by this increased consumption, could 

* Rep. Sec. Treas. U. S., on Commerce and Navigation. 
+ Present Part, p. 119. t See table, p. 119, present Part. 

II Present Part, p. 122. ^ Present Part, p. 118. 

IT Loudon Economist, 1850, p. 103. ** Present Part, p. 118. 
9 



13U Present Relations of Free Labor and Slave Labor, 

not be supplied by tlie West Indiii planters, and the price rose 39 per 
cent., so as to brinjf the East India coU'eo into use. 

At the time of the reduction of the duties. West India coffee sold 
at 00*. the cwt., but it advanced to 125a\ without effecting an in- 
creased production. The quantity annually imported from the West 
Indies, in the five years that preceded the reduction of the duty 
in 1825, averaged 30,280,300 lbs., and from 1832 to 183G, only 
19,812,100 lbs., being a reduction of 34 per cent, in the supply, 
notwithstanding an advance of 39 per cent, in the price. This result 
led to anotiier modification of tlie coffee duties in 1835, when East 
India coffee was admitted on equal terms with that of the West Indies. 

While the duty on East India coffee was 9f/. per lb., the amount 
increased, because of the increase of price of West India coffee, from 
about 300,000 lbs. a year, to 1,500,000 lbs. In 1835, the consump- 
tion of East India coffee amounted to 5,590,791 lbs., and in 1837 
readied 9,114,793 lbs.* 

The following table, embracing the whole field of the extent of 
the production aud consumption of coffee, is so full and satisfactory, 
that notliiiig more can be needed to a clear understanding of the sub- 
ject. It was prepared in December, 1849, by Campulii.l, Arnott As 
Co., the great Liverpool coflee merchants, and may be relied upon 
as possessing nmch accuracy. 

Comparative View of Production and Consumption of Coffee. 



COUNTRIES PRODUCING. 



Brazil, 

Java and Sumatra. 

t'ulja, 

I'orio Rii'o, Laguayra, and Cosla Rica, • 

Si. Dotniiiijo, 

Uriiisli W^fsl Indies, and Ceylon, 

iJutcli West Indies, 

I'rench Kasi and West Indies, 

Muclia, India, iic, 



Total Production,- 



Deduct consuinptiuu ot" United Slates,- 
Ualnncc for Europe, 



COUNTRIES CONSU.MING 



finiat Brim in, 

l''ruiice and transit, and Switzerland, 

Ilolluiid. Hel);iuin, nnd Gerniiiny, 

Russm, Swcili-n. Norway, and Di-nniark. ••• 
Italy, Aii-ilria, l.t-vanl, Greece, and Turkey. 
Spuiu uiid I'ortugal, 



Total Consumption, 

Surplus on the .'JOtli of December,- 



1S38. 184:3. 1S4S. 



lb:*. I Ills. I1)S. Ihs. 

:3.i)'JO.(IOUjl2,(KK1.0O0 l«S.I(i(l.On(» •J'^n.Ollli.OOO 

G().'1-0(I0;» !)-..>lJOIinii l.'i'i -oilUtMl 131 UK). (HO 

'1'».UM).000 40.-J-U000I 4fr>-0,('0ll -JJ,)! 1(1 0(10 

20.16(1.0011 2-2.-10ii,i,0() :.'l.ti4(l.000 y:j.6(!0.(l00 

-11,8(10.0(10 ;i^.0S(l.0ll0 'lO.'i'JOOOll ,"!:!.G(IO.III»0 

2(>.'J0S.(I00 21.iJ.W00O lU.O-lll.OdO y-^.OHlOOO 

4,-lsi,(iOO ;{.:tii(».(iuo 3.;(iO(Hi(i 2-J4liO.;0 

ii.-jonooo s.niioooo ^.iiiiooou 6.7-j('.(ioo 

11,200.000 0,720.000 6 720 000 4.4SO.OOO 



:i01.728 000 301. .J 12.0(10 



4!).280 000 «l.(i00.000 



252.446000 271.712.000 



l;r33 



2:;.'>20 0(i0 a'>.:!l 2.00(1 
:t:l.O(lo.ooo :mOiH.(HM) 
l.')2.:J2(IOI10 100 400.000 

11.200 000 i.'i.esiooo 

34,720 000 40.320.000 
0.720.000 8060.000 



4<)7.2^0.000 



1S13 



31.300.000 
40, .3'2I 1.000 
>l'.l..'')20()O(l 
22 400 000 
51.020 000 
11.200000 



2(i2.0-<() 000 316 73i) OOO 376.320 000 414.400 (00 



555.520.000 



3'-.0'*o.ono 

44.800 000 
232 OCiO.OOO 
26 8^0.000 
5S 240.000 
13 410.000 



1 I7.t!00,()00 94.752.000 1 77.C.32 (100 I.V.I 9.tG(d0 



• Porter's Progress of Uie Nation, Vol. II-, p. 118, 119. 



Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor, 131 



In 1821, the United States consumed 11,8GG,063 lbs. of cofTee. 
The duly was then five cents per lb. and remained at this rate until 
18:>1, when it was reduced to two cents, and in 1832 to one cent. 

In 1833 coflee was admitted free of duty, and has so remained 
ever since that date. Tlie consumpUon of that year was 75,057,900 
lbs., to which it had gradually risen from the 11,886,000 lbs. of 1821. 
From this date, the consumption of coffee in the United Stales, had a 
rapid increase until 1847, when it had reached 150,332,992 lbs.* la 
1818 the consumption was 156,000,000 Ibs.t 

As all our investigations have reference to the question of tlie ex- 
tent to which Christian governments are consuming slave labor 
products, it becomes necessary to refer to the sources whence llie 
coffee imported by each is obtained. It stands thus : 

England, by her discriminating duties, almost entirely excludes 
slave labor coffee, and derives nearly the whole amount of her con- 
sumption of that article from her own colonies. Of the 34,431,074 
lbs. of coffee imported for England for home consumption, 29,769,730 
lbs. were from her own colonies, and only 4,661,344 from elsewhere.il 

According to the table of Campbell, Arnolt, and Co., the quantity 
of coffee produced in slave labor countries, including Brazil, the 
Dutch West Indies, Cuba, Porto Rico, &c., in 1848, was 338,240,000 
lbs., while in the remaining coffee growing countries, which were all 
free labor, (France, in that year, having emancipated the slaves in her 
colonies,) the production was only 217,800,000 lbs., being less than 
that of tlie product of slave labor, by nearly one-third, or 120,440,000 
lbs. As Holland, Belgium, and Germany, consume 98,560,000 lbs. 
of coffee more than is produced in Java and Sumatra, this excess is 
probably all slave grown produce. Looking at tlie small product of 
the colonies of France, and her large consumption, the conclusion is, 
that the greater portion of what she uses must be the product of 
slave labor. 

The following table points to the sources whence the United States 
derives its coffee, and the extent to Avhich she is dependent upon 
slave labor for that article. 

Imports of Coffee into the United States, for the year 1848. ^ 



Countries whence imported. 


Coffee, lbs. 


Countries whence imported. 


Coffee, lbs. 


Swedish West Indies. . . . 


510 

56,702 

2,001 

3,037,373 

141,077 

710,331 

2,381,773 

25,484 

2,258,710 

384,393 


Hayti 

New Granada 


16,990,976 
328 971 


Dutch do. do 


Venezuela 

Brazil 


12,720,613 

111,657,395 

507,810 

37,136 

57,567 

167 400 


Dutch East Indies 


Cisplatine Republic 

Chili 


Holland 

Manilla and Phillipine Is. 

Cuba 

Other Spanish W. I 


Africa generally 


Franco on Atlantic 

Total, lbs. 


1,923 


151,412,125 



*Rep. Sec. Treas. U. S., Dec. 1, 1847. f Campbell, Arnott, and Co. 

i Rep. Sec. Treas. on Com. & Nav., 1843 &. 9, the year ending June 30, 1843. 

II London Qr. Kcv. Aj ril, IP.'iO. 



132 Present lielulions of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 

Of tlie cofl'ee imported, as above, that from Brazil, Cuba, and 
other Spanish and Dutch West Indies, amounting to 114,291,214 
lbs., was all slave labor produce. Taking all the remaining imports 
as tlie product of free labor, and they only aflord us 37,117,911 lbs., 
or a half million less tlian one-fourth of tlie amount imported. Thus 
stands the coffee question in the United States. 

From the preceding statistics it appears that the United States and 
the nations of Europe are now consuming, annually, or have as stock 
on hand, about 555,520,000 lbs. of coll'ee, divided as follows: 
The product of slave labor .... 338,240,000 lbs. 
The product of free labor 217,280,000 lbs. 

Dillerence in favor of slave labor . . 120,960,000 lbs. 

Next, and last, the article of Svgar claims attention. "It was 
unknown to the ancients, as an article of consumption. In Europe 
it was introduced as late as the fifteenth century." The first sample 
of West India sugar was manufactured in Jamaica, in 1G73. The 
rapidity with which its production, and consumption, has increased, 
will be indicated by the following table, showing the exports of 
sugar from Jamaica. This table is made up from one in Martin's 
British Colonics, a work of great research ; the facts of which are 
derived from official sources. The statistics have been condensed so 
as to give the average annual exports from 1772 to 1836, and there 
is added, from Blackwood's Magazine, those from 1839 to 1843, and 
from 1846 to 1848.* A few years omitted in the earlier periods, 
are blanks in Martin's tables. From 1804, onward, where ditler- 
ent results from the general average are found, we give the years 
separately. This arrangement is important, to enable us to judge 
of the influence which the prohibition of the slave trade exerted 
U{)on the prospeiily of that and the other West India It^lands ; and 
to determine the period when the decline in the amount of Jamaica 
exports had its origin. 

Average annual exports of Sugar from Jamaica, for the periods stated.-f 



Years. 


lbs. Sugar. 


Years. 


lbs. Sugar. 


1772 to 1775 


12:),979,700 


1809 to 1810 


180,963,825 


17K8 to 171)1 


]43,794,8.')7 


1811 aloiip. 


218,87-1.0(10 


179:t to 1798 


14r),598,8.')0 


1812 to 1S21 


183,70(;,'2>1) 


17!)!) to 1803 


193,781,140 


1822 to 1832 


153,76(1, 131 


]H(I4 alone. 


177,436,750 


1833 to 18.35 


13 1,1 Ml). 1(11) 


18f)5 aloiiu. 


237,751,150 


1836 alono 


75,il!)l),!l.')n 


IHOG alone. 


231,056,6.50 


1839 to 184311 


67,921.^1)0 


1807 to 1808 


197,963,825 


I 1846 to 1848^ 


67,539,200 



II Present Lecture, p. 10. § Ibid. 

As heretofore stated,:|: theelTects of the abolition of the slave trade, 
in 1&08, and of the emancipation of the slaves in 1834, upon the 

• See prfsetil I'lirt, p. 113. i I'i'gP t "). Present I'lirt. 

t Tii'i tables of Martin give tlx- exports in lilids. tierces, and bbls. We have 
reduced the whole to lbs., esliinaling tlie lihd. at IGOO lb.s., the tierce at 900 lbs. 
and the barrel at 250 lbs., us per best authorities. 



Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 133 

commercial interests of Jamaica, will serve as a true index to the 
results in all the English West India colonies. 

The course of legislation in England, for several years past, has 
tended to increase the consumption of sugar by augmenting the 
supply. Up to 1844 all foreign sugars were excluded, and her 
own colonics enjoyed a strict monopoly of her markets. But the 
failures of her West India possessions, after emancipation, to furnish 
their usual supplies, led, in 1844, to the admission of foreign free 
labor sugar for consumption, and, in 1846, to that of slave labor 
sugar also. 

In 1848, the London Quarterly Review* says, that the amount 
taken for consumption, of foreign slave grown sugar, was 229,748,- 
096 lbs. We have been unable to ascertain the total annual con- 
sumption of slave grown sugar, in England, since 1846, but find, by 
the London Economist,! that, for the first eleven months of each 
year, it has been as follows : 



1846 lbs. 57,902,544 

1847 " 104,838,048 



1848 lbs. 118,366,976 

1849 " 63,517,888 



The total imports of sugar into England, and the amount re-ex- 
ported, were as follows : 

English imports. X English re-exports. \\ 

1846 lbs. lbs. 29,624,432 

1847 " " 96,613,992 

1848 " 852,792,976 " 48,735,008 

1849 " 928,002,208 " 84,768,096 

The difference between the imports and re-exports is the amount 
taken for consumption, and the diflerence between this and the actual 
consumption indicates the stock left on hand at the close of the year. 

The whole amount of sugar consumed in England, in 1831,§ 
was over 450,000,000 lbs. From 1844 to 1849, the consumption 
of this article, including molasses at its equivalent in sugar, was as 
follows : ^ 

lbs. 675,329,120 

692,256,320 

" 728,931,600 

By taking the average consumption of 1848 and 1849, a true idea 
of the present annual demand for sugar, in the English market, will 
be afforded : 

It was, per annum, lbs. 710,593,960 

Of which slave-grown sugar** constituted, say, 146,000,000 

Leaving England's consumption of free labor sugar, 564,593,960 

» See present Part, p. 114. t 1850, p. 86. 

t London Economist, 1850, p. 169. || lb., p. 170. 

\ Present Part, p. 114. ]p Lond. Economist, 1850, p. 170. 

** See page 130. — Allowing all the exports from the English Colonies to 
be imported and consumed by lier, the whole amount is less than her con- 
bumptiou, by about 146,000,000 lbs. 



1844 


lbs. 


486,648,960 


1847 


1845 


t( 


570,127,040 


1848 


1846 


<( 


609,781,760 


1849 



134: Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 

The sources of Englaiurs supply of sugar can be seen at once, in 
the annexed table. Tlie amounts stated, however, are only for the 
first eleven months of each year, and do not give the whole quantity 
imported and entered for consumption. 

Sugar entered in the first eleven months of each year, for consumption.* 



Year. West Indies. Mauritius. East India. Total colonial. | Total foroifrn 



1846 
1847 

1848 
1849 



244,737,136 
261,306,080 
283,772,036 
319,0.32,896 



93,H79,520 
112,783,216 

86 086,896 
106,993,152 



150,773,616 
124,.300,144 
140,658,572 
138,867,792 



489,390,272 
498,399,440 
510,517,404 
564,893,616 



57,902,544 
104,838,043 
134,046,976 

47,837,868 



We add another table, which embraces the whole of the exports 
from all tiie British colonics, from 1840 to 1849, and exhibits their 
extent for ilie twelve months of each year. 





Exports of Sugar from all tht 


British Colonial Possessions.^ 


Years. 


lbs. Sugar. 


Remarks. 


Years. 


lbs. Sugar. 


Remarks. 


1840 
1841 
1842 
1843 
1844 


365,060,192 
473,177,488 
463,220,064 
459,557,728 
459,495,696 


Strict monopoly 

(( <( 
(( (( 
i( It 


1 1845 
1846 

1847 
1848 
1849 


551,336,992 
501,061,904 
700,906,576 
566,077,792 
583,024,400 


Fr. lab. sug. adm. 

Foreign, of all 

kinds, adm. 

« <( 



This table includes the entire sources of supply possessed by Eng- 
land within her own colonics, and shows that their exj)orts of sugar, 
were 

§hort of her consumption, in 1849, by 145,907,200 pounds. 

Short of her total imports, do. 344,977,808 " 

But it must here be remarked, that the whole exports fro7n the 
Brilisli colonies are not always imported into England, because a 
jiorlion of their products are taken by other countries. In 1848, 
the United States imported from the British West India Islands, 
1,2.'38,222 lbs. of sugar, and in 1849, 1,245,492 lbs. It must be re- 
collected, then, that the exports from her colonies are not always 
the measure of England's imports from them, and that, therefore, 
the amount of her supplies of cotton, sugar, coffee, &c., from her 
colonies, are not always equal to their exports. 

Tiie production of cane sugar in the United States, until recently, 
was confined to Louisiana. The rapidity with which it has pro- 
gressed, in this country, furnishes a useful lesson for the little Kc- 
j)ulilic of Liberia. Slie possesses the best quality of sugar lands, 
and has around her an unlimited amount of labor that may be made 
available. 

'J'he following tal>le presents the amount of llie crops of sugar 
produced in Louisiana, at nearly equal intervals, during thirty years : 



* London Economist, 1850, p. 8(i. 

t London Economist, from Farl. Rep. 351, 1850- 



Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 135 



and shows the extent of our tlomcstic supply of cane sugnr.* The 
procUiclion of maple sugar, in 1840,t was about 30,000,000 lbs. 

Table of crops of Louisiana Sugar. 



Years. 


lbs. Sugar. 


Years. 


lbs. Sugar. 


1818 

1824-5 

1829-30 

1834-5 

1839-40 


18,000,000 

30,000,000 

73,000,000 

110,000,000 

119,457,000 


1844-5 

1848-9 
1849-50* 
" Texas.f 
Lou. gals, molas. 


204,916,000 

220,000,000 

269,769,000 

10,000,000 

12,000,000 



* New Orleans Commercial Bulletin. 



t Ibid. 



The imports of foreign cane sugar into the United States, for the 
last two years, were as follows : | 

1848 . . . 257,138,230 

1849 .... 259,324,126 

Of these amounts the following were the proportions of free and 
of slave labor : , 

Imports of Free and of Slave Labor Sugar into the United Staies.\\ 



Slave labor. 


lbs. 1848 


lbs. 1849 


Free Labor. 


lbs. 1848 


lbs. 1849 


From Cuba, 
other Sp.W.I. 

Brazil. 
Dutcli W. I. 

Guiana. 


181,058,107 

47,778,973 

6,687,657 

513,977 

32,455 


183,011,744 
51,483,166 
11,131,457 

7.37,855 
209,755 


Sw. & Dan W.I. 
Dh.E.I.,Hol.etc. 

Ilayti. 
Manilla, &c. 

China. 
Br. W. L, &c. 
Other countries. 


2,734,970 
2,432,305 

.357,091 
12,546,098 

352,032 
2,096,683 

547,882 


2,695,899 

665,050 

4,617 

6,649,1.32 

1,060,372 


Totalslv.gr. 
" free lab. 


236,071,169 
21,067,061 


246,573,977 
12,695,355 


1,292,/ 61 
327,524 


Excess sl. lb. 


215,0^5,548 


233,878,622 Total free labor. '21.067,061 


12,695,355 



The exports of domestic sugar from the United States is very 
limited, being for 1848 only 3,522,779 lbs., and for 1849 but 
2,:356,104 lbs. 

Of the foreign imports, there were re-exported for 1848, 13,686,- 
510, and for 1849, only 6,473,800 lbs. § 

To arrive at the amount of the consumption of sugar in the United 
States, the quantity exported must be deducted from the amount of 
the imports and of the domestic production. In doing tliis, we 
have allowed the re-exports of foreign sugar all to have been of the 
slave labor production, and thus afford an advantage to the figures 
representing the free labor sugar consumed in tlie United States. 
Making these deductions, the following results are produced : 

*Ed. D. Mansfield, Esq., of Cincinnati Chronicle. 

f See Census, 1840. 

i Rep. Sec. Treas. U. S., on Com. and Nav. 

II Rep. Sec. Treas. U. S., on Com. and Nav. 

§ The molasses imported into the United States, amounted, in 1849, to 23,- 
796,806 gallons, of which only 756,339 gallons were of free labor. Of these 
imports 793,535 gals, were re-exported. 



>>>Ty 



)£" 6 0L)^ lOh 



irJO Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 

Consumption of Cane Su(jar in the United States. 

Ihs, 1843 lbs. 1840 

Growth of the U. S., less the exports, 216,477,221 277,402,896 

Slave labor imports, " " 222,384,759 240,099,177 

Slave labor Sugar consumed, U. S., 438,861,980 517,502,073 

Free labor Sugar, " " 21,067,061 12,695,355 

Total Sugar consumption, 459,929,041 530,197,428 

Excess of slave grown, do. 417,794,919 504,806,718 

The consumption of sugar in France, in 1848, was about 290,- 
000,000 lbs. or this quantity, 140,000,000 lbs. were of beet root 
sii2;ar, produced in France. The production of cane sugar in the 
French colonies, in 1840, was 161,500,000 lbs.* For the first nine 
months of 1847, they supplied to France 168,884,177 lbs., but for 
the same period of 1849, only 96,929,336 lbs., being a "falling off, 
as heretofore stated, of 71,854,841 lbs. the first nine months after 
freedom.t The production of beet root sugar is increasing every 
year. A heavy duty upon foreign sugar nearly excludes it from the 
French market, and thus, since her emancipation act of 1848, France 
may be considered as consiwiing very Utile slave grown sugar. 

AVe have been unable to procure tlie statistics of the protiuction 
and consumption of sugar as fully as those of coffee and cotton. ± 
liut they are sufficiently accurate for all practical purposes. For 
England and the United States they are ample, but for the continent 
somewhat imperfect. The August number of Hunt's Merchant's 
Magazine contains a statement, from the House of Eaton, Safford 
&L Fox, of Cuba, of the production and consumption of sugar through- 
out the world. Although imperfect in a few cases, it enables us to 
reach a close approximation to the amount of slave and free labor 
sugars annually produced. 'I'aking the whole of the authorities we 
have consulted, and they warrant us in slating the production of slave 
grown sugars as follows : 

Cuba and Porto Rico 672,000,000 lbs. 

Brazil 268,000,000 " 

United States 280,000 ,000 " 

Total slave grown sugar 1,220,000,000 lb7. 

This amount does not include the production of the Dutch colo- 
nies in the West Indies and Guiana, wlicre slavery still exists. The 
statement is short by that amount, and we have been unable to find 
it given separately from that of the Dutch East India possessions. 
Of this slave grown sugar England and the Uniteil States consume 
IU>3,.')02,000 lbs. annually. This leaves, of slave grown sugars for the 
I'Miilincnlal countries of Europe, 550,198,000 Uis. Tiie whole con- 
.siuni)tion of these countries, excepting France, but including Kussi.i, 

• We are indebted to M. Durkau, a l-'rench gentleman engaged in the collec- 
tion of BUgar btatislics, for these facta. t See present Part, p. 115. 

* In obtaining our cotton HtatistifH, wo have been much indebted to Mr. 
Thomas I*'ii.\nki.ani), of tlic Society of Friends, reet'iitly frotn England, whoso 
ac<iuuintanco wo mad« nt the Christian Anti-Slaverj' Convention, in Cincinnati. 



Present delations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 137 



Puvkey, and Egypt, is estimated by Eaton, SafTord & Fox, at 7G5, 
375,000. From this, deduct the above balance of slave grown sugar, 
nnd there is left to be supplied by free labor, a demand of 208,877,000. 
To determine the probable accuracy of the result last stated, we 
have taken the exports of free labor sugar from the British posses- 
sions, as determined by our former investigations, and those of the 
other sugar-producing countries, as estimated in the article in Hunt's 
Magazine. The result is as follows : 

Endish possessions 5S3,02t,000 lbs. 

Holland possessions 120,000,000 " 

Danish and Swedish possessions 20,000,000 " 

German and Belgian, including heet sugar 30,000,000 " 

Excess of production over consumption in the South American Republics, 
Kgypt, and China 30,000,000 " 



Total free labor sugar for European and United States consumption- 
Deluct free labor sugar consumed by United States and England 



• • • 783,024,000 lbs. 
-•• 577,281:1.000 " 

Balance left for continent, exclusive of France 205,735,000 lbs. 

But this statement of free labor sugar contains some of the beet 
root and all of the slave-grown sugar of the Dutch slave labor colo- 
nies. The estimates of Brazil, on the other hand, have no deduction 
for home consumption, so that the figures above given, no doubt rep- 
resent, very nearly, the consumption of free and slave labor sugars 
ou the continent. 

We may now sum the whole results of our labors in one con- 
densed table, so as to exhibit the present relations of free labor to 
slave labor, and the indebtedness of the christian world to slavery 
for these articles of prime necessity. 

Total consumption of Free Lahor and of Slave Labor Cotton, Coffee, and Cane Sugar, by the 
countries named in the foregoing investigations. 



Countries 
consuming. 


Slave labor 
lbs. cotton. 


Free labor 
lbs. cotton. 


Slave labor 
lbs. coffee.* 


Free labor 
lbs. coffee. 


Slave labor 
lbs. sugar. 


Free labor 
lbs. sugar. 


Great Britain 

United States • • • • 


552,.'j3O,S00 
270,000,000 
150,000,000 

128,800.000 


71,409,200 


4,661,344 
119,682,189 

213,896,647 


33,-tl8,156 
37,117,911 

147,213,933 


146,000.000 

517,502,000 

none. 

556,498,000 


564,593,960 


6,000,000 
1,120,000 


150,000,000 
205,735,000 


other continental 
countries 


Total of each 


1,101,330,800 


78,589,200 


338,240,000 


217,800,000 


1,220,000,000 


933,024,315 


Slave lbs. excess- - 


1,022,741,600 


120,440,000 




280,975,685 











* Add the consumption of the United States to that of England, and deduct the amount 
from the total Slave Labor consumption, to find the amount of Slave Labor coffee consumed 
by France and the continent. 

III. That the legislative measures adopted for the destruction of the 
slave trade and slavery, especially by England, have tended to 
increase and extend the evils they were designed to destroy. 

In the outset of the investigations demanded to sustain ihis propo- 
sition, it is necessary to refer to the condition of slavery and the slave 
trade l)efore measures had been taken to arrest their progress. The 
statistical tables, in the present lecture, show that the commercial 
prosperity of the English and French West India colonics had reached 
its maximum about the period when the first acts having reference to 
the removal of the oppressions which had atilicted the African peo- 
ple, were adopted by these governments. England's act, proliibiting 
the slave trade, was' passed in 1807, and took effect in 1800. In 



138 Present Relations of Free Labor (o Slave Labor. 

1805 and 1806, the exports of sugar from Jamaica were over 230,- 
000,000 lbs.,* for each year, and from the wliole EngHsh West IntHes, 
it was about 630,000,000 lbs. Tiie article of sugar is referred to, be- 
cause it is the principal one exported from these islands. From 1827 
to 1831, the period preceding the emancipation of the English West 
India slaves, tlie exports of sugar from these colonies were reduced to 
an annual average of 448,605,520 lbs., o?'?!ea/7//one-//u'r(/, and from Ja- 
maica alone, from 1829 to 1833, to 152,561,800 \hs., 'i; ormo re than onc- 
ihird. This was twenty-five years after the prohibition of the slave 
trade, when ample time to show its eflects had elapsed. 'J'he act of 
emancipation was passed in 1833, took effect in 1834, and the free- 
dom of the slaves was perfected in 1838. 

The effect of emancipation was a still farther reduction of the ex- 
ports from these colonies — the whole exports, in 1848, being only 
313,506,112 Vos.,X or more than one -half less than in 1807, and 
Jamaica itself but 67,539,200 lbs., or nearly threefourths less than 
in 1007. 

The first direct act of the French, in reference to African freedom, 
was the proclamation of General Le Clerc,§ in 1802, proclaiming 
liberty and equality to all the inhabitants of Ilayti, without regard 
to color. The exports of sugar from that island in 1700, were 
163,318,810 lbs. II Its prosperity was at once greatly impaired 
by the revolution, and at present its exports of sugar are almost 
nothing. 

Had a reduction of the quantity of sugar, coffee, or cotton, conse- 
quent upon the suppression of the slave trade and the emancipation 
of the slaves, been the only effects of these efforts to benefit the Afri- 
can race, the world would have submitted to the sacrifice without a 
murmur, because tlie present cheap and abundant supplies of these 
articles would have been unknown. But far different from tlie re- 
sults anticipated, were the consequences of these measures upon the 
welfare of the African people. AVe shall proceed to trace them. 

England and the United States, in prohil)itin<i: the slave trade, did 
but obey the dictates of u moral power emanating from a philan- 
Ihropic public sentiment. It was an act demanded by the Christian 
principle of tiiese comitries. But in the plan of its execution, we 
have lamentable evidence of the limited wisdom and foresight of man 
in grappling with evils of great magnitude. 

In 1808, when the slave trade was prohibited by England and the 
United Slates, Africa was annually losing 85,000 ■■ of her population 
by the slave trade. Of this number 19 per cent, perished in liie 
middle passage, making available, to the slave purciiasers, 77,000 
slaves. But the disconliiinance of the slave trade, i)y these two pow- 
ers, by no means diminished the evil sought to be destroyed. From 
that day the export of slaves from Africa incrcasfd, and from 1810 
lo 1815, she was robbed yearly of 93,000 of her population; and 

•Sou present I'.irt, paiji-s IIG and 1."}.'}. 

fSoe prcNi-iit Tart, p. IK). } II). ^Ih. p. 111. || Ih. p. 114. 



Present Rehuions of Free Lulor to Slave Labor. 139 



fiom 1815 to 1819 of 100,000 annually. Of the latter, 25 per 
cent, perished in the "middle passage," so that out of 100,000 torn 
from Africa, but 79,400 reached the planters, or only 2,400 tnore 
than they had obtained when the exports from Africa were but 85,000 
With the exception of 1830 to 1835, the exports of slaves from 
Africa continued to increase until the close of 1839, when they 
reached the appalling number of 135,800 a year, with a continued loss 
of 25 per cent, of the number in their transportation. 

'I'he following tables, prepared by a select committee of the House 
of Commons, showing the state of the African slave trade with rela- 
tion to America, for the last sixty years, convey a clear view of the 
state of this traffic during that period.* 

Number of Slaves computed to have been Exported and Imported westicard from 
Africa, from 1788 to 1840. 







Average 


casual- 


-T3 ^ 


o 


o 


.^j 






ties during the 


ti .2 


a m 


a 


3 m -a 




Am'nt of 


Voy 


age. 




•""Dm 


;il 


o ^1, 




Exported. 
100,000 


Av'rg 

pr'p'r- 

tion. 


Am'nt. 




Oh P O 

gfL, 


O 3 

a, o 
►1 " 


e2 "^ 


In 1788 


14 p. c. 


14,000 


25,000 


18,000 


44,000 


86,000 




^1798 to 1805 


85,000 


14 " 


12,000 


15,000 


20,000 


38,000 


73,000 


S 

o 


1805 to 1810 


85,000 


14 " 


12,000 


15,000 


25,000 


33,000 


73,000 


1810 to 1815 


93,000 


14 " 


13,000 


30,000 


30,000 


20,000 


80,000 


.s 


1815 to 1817 


106,600 


25 " 


26,600 


32,000 


31,000 


17,000 


80,000 




1817 to 1819 


106,600 


25 " 


26,600 


34,000 


34,000 


12,000 


80,000 


>H 














capt'd. 




% 














i-y 




>~> 














crus'rs 




T. 


1819 to 1825 


103,000 


25 « 


25,800 


39,000 


37,000 


1,200 


77,200 


^ 


1825 to 1830 


125,000 


25 " 


31,000 


40,000 


50,000 


4,000 


94,000 


1830 to 1835 


78,500 


25 " 


19,600 


40,000 


15,000 


3,900 


58,900 




[1835 to 1840 


1.35,800 


25 " 


33,900 


29,000 


65,000 


7,900 


101,900 



Number q/" Slaves computed to have been annually Exported and Imported 
westward from Africa, from 1840 to 1848. 



1840 
1841 

1842 
1843 
1844 
1845 
1846 
1647 



Am'nt 

of 
slaves 
expt'd. 



64,114 
45,097 
28,400 
55,062 
54,102 
36,758 
76,117 
84,356 



Average casualties 
during the voyage. 



Average 
proportion 


Am'nt. 


25 pr cent. 
25 " 


16,068 
11,274 


25 « 
25 " 


7,100 
13,765 


25 " 
25 " 
25 " 
25 " 


13,525 

9,189 

19,029 

21,089 



Slaves 






import- 


Import- 


Captur- 


ed into 


ed into 


ed by 


Spanish 


Brazil. 


cruis'rs. 


colonies 






14,470 


30,000 


3,616 


11,857 


16,000 


5,966 


3,150 


14,200 


3,950 


8,000 


30,500 


2,797 


10,000 


26,000 


4,577 


1,350 


22,700 


3,519 


1,700 


52,600 


2,788 


1,500 


57,800 


.3,967 



Total 
amount 
of slaves 
import'd. 



48 086 
33,823 
21,300 
41,297 
40,577 
27,569 
57,088 
68,267 



* Westminster Review, 1850, p. 263. 



1-10 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 

But wliy this disastrous defeat of tlie benevolent designs of Eng- 
land and the United States, in tlieir eflbrts to suppress the slave 
trade? The question is easily answered. The diminution of tlie 
exports from the British West Indies, being more than one-half, 
equaled a loss of 420,000 of her former 800,000 slaves. France 
had lost thrce-ftfths* of her annual colonial supplies of sugar and 
oilier products, in the emancipation, or death by war, of her 480,000 
slaves in Hayti.t The 163,300,000± lbs. of sugar lostby tliese events, 
had 10 be supplied to France by increased production in her remain- 
ing colonies. This required an additional amount of labor, equal- 
ing what had been rendered unavailable in Hayti, or 480,000 men ; 
and this number, added to England's equivalent loss of 420,000, 
making in all 900,000 slaves, had to be jirocured from Africa, and 
to be renewed every seven years.§ 

Following the example of France, Spain and Portugal immediately 
commenced extending their cultivation, in Cuba and Brazil, by a 
vigorous prosecution of the slave trade. They were encouraged in 
the execution of this design, in the opening markets created for their 
products by the diminishing exports of the English and French colo- 
nies. The withdrawal of the English and American slave merchants 
from the African coast, removed all rivalry, except tliat of France ; 
and in a little over thirty years, slave grown products increased nearly 
three-fourths above what they had been when the slave trade was 
pruliibited.il 

'J'hese facts being stated, it is easily seen why the slave trade 
should have increased with such rapidity, and to such an amazing 
extent. For each slave emancipated by England and France, wlio 
refused to labor as he had done while a slave, (for which no man will 
blame him, but which, it was predicted, he would do out of gratitude 
to his benefactor,} another had to be obtained from Africa to make 
up the loss to commerce. 

But in addition to the diminished supply of tropical products, 
occasioned by the prohibition of llie slave trade and the emancipa- 
tion of the slaves in the West Indies, there has been a vastly increased 
consumption of some of the commodities upon which slave labor 
has been employed; and, as before remarked, all this rapidly increas- 
ing demand had to be supplied by slave labor. Hence, the enormous 
increase of the slave trade, notwiUistanding the ellbrts made for its 
suppression. 

But where was the error, in the legislation by England, on this 
subject? It was in this : She should, before taking any action her- 
self, have obtained llie consent of tlie other European powers, to unite 
ill disallowing the slave trade to their subjects. At that day some of 
the articles now so j)rofitab!y employing slave labor, were compara- 
tively unimportant to commerce. Beople, then, were more desirous 
of escaping from the evils of slavery than they are at present, and 



• Prn^pnt P.nrt, p. 111. +lb. }Ib. p. 118. §Ib. p. 114. 
II Sec J'art Fir.-l, ji. -l',', fur McQueen's statement of this fact. 



Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 141 

efficient measures for emancipation could have been more easily- 
executed. 

But England's first act of philanthropy was done at a moment 
when her mamifaduring operations were rapidly growing up into 
great national interests, that could not be checked or dispensed with, 
and the ultimate importance of which could not then be foreseen. 
While, therefore, on the one hand, she was afterward pleading the 
cause of humanity, and urging tlie abandonment of the slave trade 
and of slavery, upon other nations ; on the other, her own di- 
tninishing supplies of tropical products, and increasing cotton 
manufactures and sugar consumption, were creating, at home and 
abroad, that increasing demand for slave labor products, which sup- 
plied the chief aliment that sustained the foreign slave trade and 
foreign slave labor cultivation. And even when Great Britain par- 
tially succeeded, by bonus* or by treaty, in gaining over a nation to 
her measures, alas ! there was not that virtuous public sentiment, 
such as had existed in England and the United Slates, to act over 
upon that nation, and to encourage or impel it onward in the execu- 
tion of its noble and humane engagements. 

An outline of British legislation, in reference to the admission of 
tropical commodities to her markets, will show how effectually her 
legislation at home defeated negotiation abroad. 

Up to 1844, the British colonies enjoyed a practical monopoly of 
the British markets. The duty on foreign sugar was 63 s. per cwt., 
on sugar the growth of her East India possessions and Mauritius, 
37 s. per cwt., and on that of her West India Colonies, only 27 s. per 
cwt.t In 1844 the first inroad was made, the act taking effect in . 
November of that year, by which foreign free labor sugar was 
admitted at a lower duty.± This act terminated the monopoly which 
the British colonies had in the markets of the mother country, and 
allowed the introduction of the free labor sugars of Java and Manilla 
for consumption in England; while Holland and Spain compensated 
themselves for the amount of their usual supplies thus diverted to a 
profitable market, by sending to Cuba and Brazil for a sufficient quan- 
tity of their cheaper slave labor sugar to make up the deficiency. § 

In 1845, a general reduction of the sugar duties was made, which 
reduced the protection against foreign slave grown sugars one-half, 
and in 1846, the final act was passed, admitting all foreign sugars on 
advantageous terms. This act made a progressive reduction, during 
three years, of the duties on foreign sugar, until in 1849, when those 
on foreign and colonial were to become equal to each other. || In 1848 
however, another act was passed by Parliament, postponing, for three 
years, the equalization of. the duties to be levied on foreign and colo- 

* A bonus was paid to Portugal, in 1815, to conclude a treaty to abandon 
llie slave trade, and near the same time, by a similar treaty with Spain, she 
received from England $2,000,000, and afterward evaded her engagement. — 
Ed. Rev., July 18.SG. 

t Westminster Rev. 1850, p. 276. t London Economist, 1850, p. 85. 

§ See Part first, p. 41. || Blackwood's Mag. 184, p. 5. 



11- Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 

nial sugars, and thus, seemingly, affording a slight protection to the 
colonies until 1854. But the difference in duties, owing to the man- 
ner in which the scale is arranged, and the greater cheapness of 
slave-labor cultivation, makes the law afford only a nominal protec- 
tion and be of little practical value. The duties, per cwt., on for- 
eign and colonial sugars, stand as follows since the last enactment, 
and will be equal on all kinds in July, 1854.t 







MUSCOVADOS. 






To 5 July, 


To 5 Julv, 


To 5 July. 


To 5 July, 


To 5 July, 


Fr"ni 5 July, 


IfeoO. 


1851. 


1852. 


1853. 


1854. 


1854. 


X. J. d 


.€. 5, d. 


£. s. d. 


£. .■!. d. 


£. s d 


i, s. d. 


British 11 


Olio 


10 


10 


10 


10 


Foreigu 17 


15 G 


14 


13 


1-2 


10 » 



British 14 
Foreign 19 10 

British IG 
Foreign 14 8 

British 4 G 
Foreiffu 6 4 



WHITE CLAYED. 

12 10 1 11 8 I 11 e I 11 8 I 11 8 
18 1 16 4 15 2 14 11 8 



WHITE REFINED. 

14 8 1 13 4 I 13 4 

1 2 8 1 8 19 4 



13 4 
17 4 



13 4 
13 4 



MOLASSES. 

2 10 3 9 1 
9 5 3 



3 9 
4 10 



3 9 

4 6 



3 9 
3 9 



The immense falling off in the exports of the British AVest India 
colonies, which had taken place after emancipation, and the impossi- 
bility of her East India possessions supplying the deficiency, left the 
government of Great Britain no other alternative but a reduction of 
tiie sugar duties, and the admission of slave fcrown si/2;ar. A strug- 
gle to stimulate West India industry had been continued tliiitecn 
years, from 18:^3 to 1840, resulting only in taxing the Englisli people 
1/1/ protective duties, $150,0()0,000| more than tlie consumers of 
other countries had paid for an equal quantity of sugar, and the effort 
had to be aljandoned. 

For many years her West India colonics had supplied to England 
more sugar than was necessary for home consumption, allowing the 
government to force off that of her East India possessions into otlier 
markets, by a differential duty of 10 shilliugs the cwt. in favor of her 
West Indies. But in 184(i, her own consumption of sugar was 609,- 
781,7ti0 lbs.,§ and the total exports of all her West India colonies only 
ti77,ti52,400 lbs. ,11 and with that of the East Indies and Mauritius 
aikled, but .'J01,0G1,904 lbs.,f an amount, even if Enijland received it 
all, not sufficient for her home consumption by 108,1 19,850 lbs. 
By tiiis result the whole field of the foreign nv.xxkcA^, formerly supplied 
zcith En'j^lish stif^ar, was left open for that of slave labor products. 

The im|)ulse given to the efforts of other nations, in the prosecu- 
tion of ibe slave trade, when it was abandoned by England and the 
United .Slates, received no check, as is shown by tlie foregoing 



+ Westminster Rev. 1850, p. 276. 
} Westminster llev. 1850. p. Ii75. 
II I'rtbcnt Part, p. H.'l. 



§ Present Part, p. 129. 
? Present Part, p. 130. 



Present Relations of Free JAibor to Slave Labor. 1-43 

table,* until 1830, when a reduction of the price of sugar from 445. (Sd. 
the cwt. to 24s, 8;^/., diminished the export of slaves from Africa 37 
per cent. But this depression lasted only during the time that the 
price of sugar continued at that reduced rate. In 1836, sugar again 
rose to 29s. 3t?. tiie cwt., and gave an impetus to the slave trade that 
increased the export of slaves from Africa 73 per cent., or to 135,800 
per annum from that till the close of 1839.t 

But 1840 constitutes an epoch in the history of the slave trade, 
because, during that year, the first successful check was given to it, 
and the hope created that it could be annihilated. From that period 
until 1847, tlie varying results will be found in the foregoing Parlia- 
mentary tahles. By the first table it wall be seen, that the African 
slave trade had readied its maximum from 1835 to 1839, when the 
average annual exports were 135,800, and that in 1840 it was sud- 
denly reduced to 64,114. 

This reduction was effected through the unwearying efforts of 
England, stimulated, in a great measure, it is believed, by the com- 
mercial considerations referred to in our first Lecture. Be this as it 
may, by her influence, the authorities of Brazil, in 1840 and 1841, 
made the attempt to suppress the slave trade, and the effect was 
immediate.! General Espartero being in power in Spain, also acted 
in good laith in the execution of the conditions of the treaty with 
England, and appointed General Valdez, Governor of Cuba. When 
Valdez entered upon iiis duties, the imports of slaves into Cuba were 
about 14,000 annually. The first year of his government reduced 
the imports 8,000; and in 1842, the last year, the number imported 
was only 3,100 men.§ Political changes occurring, the plans of these 
governmeiils were soon abandoned, and the increasing demand for 
slave grown products, which was soon after created, by their admis- 
sion into the English markets, gave renewed activity to that traffic, 
increasing it, in 1847, to witiiin a trifle of what it was from 1798 to 
1810, and in 1848 and 1849, it is believed, to an extent nearly equal 
to what it has been at any former period. || 

With these facts before us, a true conception can be formed of the 
past and present condition of the slave trade. 

It is evident tiiat if England could have persisted in her exclusion 
of slave grown products from her markets, and could have rejected 
such free labor products as would have been replaced in other mar- 
kets bv an equivalent of those of slave labor origin, that a death-blow 
would have been given to the slave trade, and, in its suppression, to 
the slavery of Cuba and Brazil. But, unfortunately, at the moment 
\\\\e\\ne2;otiation abroad, combined \\\\h protective duties at home, 
had enabled England to reduce the exports of slaves from Africa, in 
1845, to 30,758, and the imports into Brazil to 22,700 ; the clamor 
in England, for a full supply of sugar, forced the government, first 

* See table, present part, p. 135. f London Times, 1849. 

% Speech of Sir R. Peel in British Parliament, 1844. § Ibid. 
11 Westminster Review, 1S50, p. 265, states that tlie imports of slaves into Bra- 
zil m 1848 were 72,t)()0, a larger nunilwr than at any former period. 



lit Present Relations of Free Labor and Slave Labor. 

to aelinit free labor sugar, and next, tliroiigli the predominance of 
free-trade principles, slave labor sugar also. These acts at once 
opened up a market of such importance to countries employinsif slave 
labor, that an irresistible impetus was given to the slave trade, stimu- 
lalmir ihost! ensiaged in it to break through every treaty stipulation, 
and l)id defiance to all the physical force that can be arrayed against 
tliem. 

It was the advancing demand for slave grown products, created by 
the causes before staled, that made it impossil)le lor the governments 
of Spain and Brazil to act in good faith in the suppression of the slave 
trade. Governments cannot go much in advance of the public senti- 
ment of tlieir people, nor can tiiey long remain much behind it. The 
positions of England and the United States, on the slave trade, were 
the result of the correct moral sentiment existing among their people. 
But the people of Spain and Brazil, governed only by commercial 
considerations, and not by motives of philanthropy or the principles 
of equity, looked only to the profits to be made by continuing the 
slave trade, and cared nothing for the amount of human woe induced, 
if they could but amass fortunes to themselves. These governments, 
therefore could not resist the tide of public sentiment; and their 
policy beiug changed, a rapidly-increasing Hood of misery has 
continued to roll on, wave after wave, until humanity shudders at 
beholding the dark and disuial deluge continually dashing in upon the 
shores of the southern portion of our continent. 

'I'hat the legislative measures adopted for the suppression of the 
slave trade and the al)olition of slavery, have tended to increase and 
extend the evils they were designed to destroy, is not an opinion of 
recent origin, but one of very general belief in England. The pres- 
ent is, perhaps, the first effort to classify the facts and demonstrate 
the proposition. But that British legislation directly tended to this 
result, has been frequenUy asserted, by many of the most intelli- 
gent Englishmen, with great positiveness ; and more than this, it was 
predicted, with equal positiveness, by men who understood human 
nature better than those controling the movement, tliat their mea- 
sures would certainly produce the results which have followed. In 
proof of tliis we need only quote a (c\v paragraphs. The first is one 
embracing predictions ol' the consequences that would follow the 
aiio[)lion of the course of Icuislalion proposed It will be found in 
the Westminster Review, 181'J. 

" We cannot abolish slavery and the slave trade — we can only 
clear ourselves of them ; and we may clear ourselves of them, say- 
ing we are alxdishing them, in a way to strenijthen them. It is not 
abolishing them to sliift theui from the West Indies to Cuba. By 
our way of ridding ourselves of slavery, we are making slaves more 
valualtle and tiie slave trade more prolitable, and increasing the inter- 
t-t of all other natimis in l)nvinLr, and selling, and keepinij slaves. 
We shall j)ay :>!l(IU,(M)l),()()0, and millions on millions l)esi(les, in 
the price of sUL'^ar and loss of capital for confirming slavery and the 
slave trade. To expect other nations to follow our examplo by 



Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 145 

making it their interest not to do it, is not very wise. The way to 
abolish slavery is to mnke it contrary to the interest of the slave- 
dealer and slaveholder." 

The remaining paragraphs are confirmatory of our proposition, 
and are from sources entitled to great respect. 

*' Fifteen years ago we thought we had done with the slave trade 
and slavery. But these odious subjects come back to us. The 
dark specters are not laid. One hundred and forty millions is the 
estimate of the sum of money spent to destroy them. Hundreds of 
associations, thousands of committees, pubhc speeches, sermons, 
prayers, &c,, &c., &;c., have all been used as exorcisms to l:iy the 
specters of the bondage and the traffic which degrade men to the level 
of domestic animals. Our poorer people have been deprived of 
comforts which would have sweetened, literally and figuratively, their 
existence, because we would deal heroically with slavery and the 
slave trade. The chains of the negro have long been broken in mar- 
ble. The fame of many renowned names have been won by feats 
of eloquence and zeal in this sacred cause. We celebrated many 
victories i>ver the iniquity. But lo ! slavery and the slave trade are 
stronger than ever, and more horrific than ever. On this subject, 
England has done two noble things, and committed two blunders. 
The nobleness has been ethical, and the blunders have been econom- 
ical. Narrowness has been the source of the evils. Christian ethics 
had highly cultivated the consciences of the abolitionists, but they 
were ignorant of economical science."* 

After referring to the modifications of die sugar duties, by Parlia- 
ment, and the scarcity of the supplies of sugar in the French mar- 
kets consequent upon emancipation in Hayti, Blackwood's Magazine 
says : t 

" To provide against the evidently approaching crisis in the supply 
of sugar in the British market, we have thrown open our harbors to 
slave-groivn sugar frrmi every quarter of the globe ; and from the 
rapid decline in the West India Islands, even before this last coup-de- 
grace was given them by the application of free-trade principles to 
their produce, it is painfully evident that a result precisely similar (to 
what occnred in Hayti.) is about to take place in the British colonies. 
And it is litde consolation to find that this injustice has recoiled upon 
the heads of the nation which perpetrated it, and that the decline in 
the consumption of British manufactures by the West India islands 
is becoming proportioned to the ruin we have inflicted on them. 

"But most of all has this concatenation of fanaticism, infatuation, 
and injustice proved pernicious to the negro race, for whose benefit 
the chauijes were all undertaken. Happy would it have been for 
them if the British slave trade had never been abolished; and they 
had crossed the Atlantic chiefly in Liverpool or Glasgow slave-ships, 
and been brought to the British West India Islands ! For then the 

♦ Westminster Revie-.v. Oct. 1849. t January, 181S, p. G, 7. 

10 



Ii6 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 

slave trade was sul)jert to our direction, and regulations mifrht liave 
been adopted to place it upon the best pos.-ihle fooiinti' for iis unhappy 
victims. But now we have thrown it entirely into the hands of the 
Spaniards and Portuguese, over whom we have no sort of conlrdl, 
and who exercise it in so frightful a manner that the heart alisolutcly 
t-ickens at the thought of the amount of human sulTering at the coat 
of which we have reduced the j)rice of sii^ur to f^i.rpnire a pound. 
Compared with it, the English slave-ships and Enali-sh slavery were 
an earthly paradise. Mr. Buxton, tin; great anti-slavery advocate, 
a(hnitted, some years ago, that tiie " number of blacks who now 
cross the Atlantic, is double ivhai it teas when Wilherforce and 
("larkson first began their benevolent labors."* Now, under the fos- 
tering influence of free-trade in sugar, it may reasonal)ly be expected 
that in a few years, the ivhole, or nearly the whole sugar consumed 
by Europe, will be raised by the slave colonies, and wrung by the 
lash from the most wretched species of slaves — those of Cuba and 
Brazil ! Moreover, the slave trade, to supply them, will be frijile 
what it was in 1789, when the movement in favor of the negro popu- 
lation began ! Thus, by the combined effects of fanaticism, igno- 
rance, presumption, and free trade, we shall have succeeded, by the 
middle of this ccniury, in totally destroying our own sugar colonies; 
.'uldingf, to no purpose, !?> 100, ()()(>,()()() to our national de!)t ; anniliilating 
j)ropL'rty to the amount of 8050,000,000 in our own (coloni;d) do- 
mains ; doubliuir the produce of lorcign slave possessions ; cutting ofT 
a market of 817,500,000 a year for our manid'actures ; and tripling 
liie slave trade in extent, and quadrupling it in horror, throughout the 
globe." 

Another writer specifies more fully the eflects of these measures.t 
"The impulse which the government act of 1846 has given to the 
slave trade in every part of the world, is something perfecdy enor- 
mous ; but its mischievous and inhuman effects will be best understood 
by a reference to ascertained facts. Prior to 1816, the trallic in 
.'•laves between the African coast and the Spanish colonies had been 
gradually declining, and had in fact almost disappeared. The exclu- 
sion of slave-srrown sui^ars from our home market had nearly forced 
the Cuban proprietors into a different system, and arrangements were 
pi'iuling in that C(»lonv for the emancipation of the slaves, just at the 
time liord John Russell came forward in favor of the chain and the 
lash, and all was chantred. " 'I'he value of field negroes in C'ulia had 
risen (in the course of the two years, from 18f0 to 1818) from ^^00 
to olio dollars each, a price that would speedily bring a supply from 
(he coast." " We will not, forsooth, permit foreign nations to trailic 
in slaves, and yet we give them the monopoly of our market, know- 
ing all the while that iipon that importation alone we are dependant 
for a cheap supply — cheap su^ar means cheap slaves.^' " Why 
did we oeslroy that market in Jamaica which we so e.igerly sieze in 

• liiixtuii on llu- Slave trmle, p. 172. 

t lUackwooii'B Mugazine, Feb. 1818, p. 235, 23G 



Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 147 

Brazil?" "Great Britain, after forcing' the Emancipation Act oi- 
lier colonies, aiid in the most solemn manner announcing, in a voice 
of thunder, her future determined opposition to the existence of the 
irartlc in slaves, at once took a course which made her the customer 
of loss scrupulous countries, and the largest encourager of tiiat odious 
tratlic in the world, thus ruining her own colonies." 

Quotations of similar expressions of opinion might be multiplied 
indefii'.ilely, but enough have been given. It may be added, however, 
that the North British Review, in a careful digest of the evidence 
contained in the six Reports on the Slave Trade and Slavery, made 
to Parliament, witiiin tlie last two years, is led to this conclusion : 
That England's coersive measures have not merely failed to check 
the supply of slaves to Brazil, but that, on the other hand, they have 
had the effect of greatly aggravating the horrors of the middle 
passage, and the sufferings endured by the negroes in the barracoons 
on the const of Africa, as well as very materially prejudicing the 
interests of British merchants trading to that country. This failure 
of the coercive policy for the suppression of the slave trade, the 
Reviewers contend, "results from its unsoundness in principle." 

IV. That the governments named, cannot hope to escape from the 
necessity of consuming the products of slave labor, except by call 
ing into active service, on an extensive scale, the free labor of 
countries not at present producing the comiiiodilies upon which 
slave labor is employed. 

In the discussion of our first proposition, we proved that the tropical 
countries, where slavery has been abolished, have failed to furnish to 
commerce, since emancipation, an amount of products equal to what 
they had previously supplied. In discussing some of the other pro- 
positions, it appeared that the whole free labor exports from the 
Asiatic portion of the Eastern Hemisphere, added to those of tiie 
Western, had fallen far short of supplying the demands of Europe 
and America. It also appeared that to this cause was principally 
due the vast increase of the slave trade during the present century. 

To sustain our fourth proposition, it will be necessary to show, 
that the free labor to which we have referred, cannot be so stimulated 
as to make it sufliciently productive to compete ivUh, and displace, 
the fruits of slave labor in the markets of the world. 

When the non-progresaive character of the population of Pajran 
countries is considered, but little aid will be expected from the Asi- 
atic portion of the Eastern Hemisphere,* in efforts to make free labor 
compete with slave labor, in tropical cultivation. The inquiries into 
this subject, may, therefore, be confined to the Western Ilemispiiere. 
To understand the relations which the free labor and the slave labor, 
of this hemisphere, bear to each other, and the capability of the first 
to compete with the last, it is necessary to state the pro[)ortion which 
the number of persons of the one class bear to those of the other. 

«Present Part, p. 121. 



1 18 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 

TIic amount of tlic popiilnlioii of the English and French West 
India Oolonii'S, iMnanoipaied from shivery, has heeii already staled,* 
and comprehends nearly the whuh' of tlie I'ree hil)or einploscd in the 
cuhivaliun of the commodities we have heeii considering. Esiima- 
ting the increase of the popnhition of Hayti, since emaiu^ipation, at 
40 per cent., and tliat of the Enalish coh)nies at 20 per cent., will 
give them a present popnhition of 1,400,000. 'J'o this must he added 
the persons emancipiled by France, in 1818, making the total free 
labor forces, within the limits under considiTation, about 1,057,000 
persons. Ajiainst this free poj)ulaiion there is arrayed iJie following 
number of slaves : t 

United States, 3,252.000 

Brazil, 3,250,000 

Pp-iiiisli Colonies, 900,000 

Dutch Colonies, 85,000 

South American Republics, 140,000 

African Settlements, 30,000 

Total slave population, 7,G57,000 

Free labor do. above stated, 1 ,657,000 

Excess of slave population 6,000,000 

Of the number of slaves in the United Slates, about 1,000,000 are 
in Slates which do not produce cotton and sugar. Deducting ihise, 
will leave 6,6.57.000 slaves arrayed against 1,657,000 free persons, or 
5,000,000 more slaves than freemen. 

These figures testify, with unequivocal distinctness, that the free 
population, above named, cannot be made to compete with the slave 
population, in tropical cultivation. In addition to the immense dis- 
jiarity of numbers, a moment's consideration "will make it evident, 
that, even were their luimbers equal, the circumstances under which 
the people, called free, are placed, would still make it impossihle to 
stimulate tliem to such a degree of industry, that their voluntary 
labor would be equally productive with the compuhonj labor of the 
.slaves. 

A very hrief examination will show, that this is not an exaggerated 
view of the condition of the people under consideration. In refer- 
ring to Hayti, we need only direct attention to a preceding tablet as 
an index of its industry, and to our second lecture!! for a correct view 
of its social and moral condition. The other French colonies, in nine 
months of their first year of freedom, have diminished their exports 
of sugar, nearly 72,000,000 1I)S.§ 

'i'lie British West Indies, it may safely he said, have a free popu- 
lation whose industry cannot lie made to compete with even an equal 
amount of slave labor. In addition to the extensive array of facts 

• Pres.-nt Part, p. 112. 

+ 'ri-Mtli Rrport (if the British and Foreipn Anti-Slavery Society. We add 
fi»r Ti-xas only 22,000, und estimate the other States up to 1850, at 3 per cent, 
per annum, sinco Itt'lO. But Texas lias at k'a.st 40,000. 

; Page 1 1 II Pages 42, 43. § Present Part, p- 115. 



Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor 149 

submitteil in tlie present ami former lectures, the public have recoiUly 
lieeu supplieti vvilli much new and important information from Ja- 
maica, by Mr. Bit,relow, one of tlie editors of the New York Evening 
Post, a leadinir Anti-Slavery paper. 

This g-entleman h:is recently visited Jamaica, and made a careful 
examination of its condition. He represents industry as at the lowest 
ebb ; and that the downward tendencies of the i^^land cannot be more 
rapid than at present. A deg'rading estimate is put upon labor, and a 
white man is never seen at work upon the estates. The blacks, 
" with the average sequence of negro logic, infer that if gentlemen 
never work, they liave only to abstain from work to be gentlemen." 
In the city of Kingston, he says, one looks and listens in vain for 
the noise of carts and the busde of busy men ; no one seems to be in 
a hurry ; l)Ul few are doing anything ; while the mass of the popula- 
tion are lounging about in idleness and rags. Nor is there any present 
iiope thai these habits of indolence will be abandoned ; because there 
is al)sohit(dy uotliing to stimulate tlie majority of the people to in- 
dustry and to etlbris for intellectual and moral advancement. The 
greater portion of the lands under cultivation is held hy owners of 
immense estates, and but little enconrauement is extended to the people 
to cultivate small tracts, because this policy would draw off the lalior 
from the sugar estates. The property qualification of voters is fixed 
so high as to exclude the mass of the people from any participation in 
llie government of the island, or in the enactment of tlie laws tlut are to 
control them. Out of a population in Jamaica, of 400, OUO, of whom 
1G,U00 are white, the average vote of the island hns never exceeded 
:s,Oi)0. The center of legislative control is in London, and the mem- 
bers of the colonial legislature are mere shadows, destitute of the vital 
fiinciions of legislators. The veto power of the governor, who is ap- 
pointed by the Queen, enables him practically to control all legisla- 
tion. The enormous property qualification required to make a man 
eligible to a seat in the legislature, excludes all but the landholders 
Amiii ihat body. By this arrangement all the energies of legislation 
are exerted tn promote the growth and sale of sugar and rum. In ad- 
(liti<m to other depressing influences, voung men of moderate means, 
i>r who are poor, cannot reach the profession of the law, because mine 
can practice at the bar except such as have pursued their studies in 
Ciiiiluid, and been adiiiitteil there. So liitle do those who conirol 
psiMic affairs, com|)relien(l the principles of human action, that though 
w:iges are only \S^ to 25 cents a day, (the Iwhoxev boarding himself,) 
tlie planters all imagine that a reduction of wages is essential lo the 
revival of ;igricultural prosperity. 

Such ar(^ the disadvantages under which these poor, oppressed 
ifiicans labor in the West Indies, and such the uiter hopelessness 
ol'theii being able to make much progress, that, next to their bnthren 
yet in slavery, they demand, and should receive, the sympathies of 
the christi;in vvoilJ. 

It would have hern difficult to convince the world, that such uttei 
ruin, as has occurred in Jamaica, could have been produced by any 



150 Present Jielations of Frcs Lobar to Slave Labor. 

course of legislation. But Mr. Riijelow reveals facts upon this sub 
ject that are truly astounding. He says: 

"Since 1832, out of the six hundred and fifty-throe sugar estates 
then in cultivation more than one hundred and fiftv have been ahan- 
doned and broken up. This has thrown out of ciiliivation over 200,- 
000 acres of rich land, which, in 1832, gave employment to about 
30,000 laborers, and yielded over 25,600,000 lbs. of sugar, and over 
0,000 puncheons of rum. During the same period, over five hun- 
dred collee plantations have also been abandoned and their works 
broken up. This threw out of cultivation over 200,000 acres more of 
land, which in 1832 required the labor of over 30,000 men." 

An estate formerly selling for $90,000, in 1845, sold for $5,000. 
Another, which once cost an equal sum, has been offered by its 
present owners for $7,500, and finding no purchaser, was abandoned. 
A multitude of such cases are embraced in Mr. Bigelow's letters, 
showing a general prostration of the commercial interests of the 
island. That an over-crowding of population can have no influence 
in checking the prosperity of Jamaica, is proved by the fact, that out 
of her 4,000,000 acres of land, all being of the most fertile kind, not 
over 500,000 acres have been brought under cultivation, or even 
appropriated. 

'i'he low state of civilization, leaves the population of the Britisn 
West Indies with few wants. It is asserted that the people of these 
islands are enabled to live in comfort, and acquire wealth, without, 
for the most part, laboring on the estates of the planters, for more than 
three or four days in the 7veek, and from five to ^even hours in the 
day, so that they have no stimulant to perform an adequate amount 
of labor.* 

This condition of things puts it out of the power of the planters to 
produce sugar for less than £20 per ton, on the average, while the 
cost in slave countries is only j£l2t per ton. 

'i'his discloses the fact that the planters of Cuba, employing slave 
labor, can manufacture sugar for £8 the ton less than those of Jamaica 
can produce it by free labor. As one of the immediate results of this 
condition of things, it was asserted in 1848, that " the great influx of 
slave-grown produce into the English markets has, in the short space 
of six months, reduced the value of sugar from £26 to £14 per ton; 
while, under ordinary circumstances of soil and season, the cost to us 
of placing it in the market is not less than £20 |)er ton."! 

it is well, here, to explain why it is that the duties on fureign 
sugar allord no real protection to the Eni;lish West India planter. 

"The slave sugars are all so much better manufactured, which the 
great conunand of labor enables them to do, tlial, to the refiner, they 
arc intrinsieallv worth more than ours. In short, they prepare their 
sugars, whereas we cannot do so, and we pay duty at the same rate 
oil an article which contains a quantity of niolasses. So that, if the 

• I'.l.ickuood'H .Mag. lH4ft.p. 227. t ll>- I'- 2:i0. 

t ]51;ickwoocl'.s Mag. ll;48, p. 230. Resolutions of a meeting at St. DuviJ't, 
Jamaica. 



Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor, 151 

duties were equalized, there would virtually be a bojws on thf. 
importation of foreign sugar. The refiners estimate the value of 
Havanna, in comparison with West India free sugar, as from three to 
five sliilhngs per cwt. belter in point of color and strength. The 
reason is, that these sugars are ])artially refined or clayed.''''* 

The relation in which foreign sugars stand to colonial, in the mar- 
kets of England, taking into account the protective duties, will be 
clearly seen by the following statement of the cost of production of 
each, with the duties added, and an allowance made for the extra 
value of the Cuban sugar over that of the English colonies, taking the 
period from July, 1850 to July, 1851 : 

British Muscovado costs planters per ton, £20 00s. 

Duty on do. per ton, 11 00 

Total cost in market, £31 00s. 

Cuban Muscovado, do. per ton, £12 00s. 

Duty, per ton, 15 10 27 10 

Balance in favor Cuban planter, 3 lOs 

Add extra value of Cuban sugar, £4 per ton, 4 00 

Slave labor advantage over free labor, £7 10s. 

By reference to the table of duties, on a preceding page, it will be 
seen that if the present relations of the cost of production shall be 
maintained, when the duties become equalized, slave labor will have 
an advantage in the English market, if no change occurs in the duties, 
of £12 the ton.t The duty on both kinds will be. in 1854, 10s. tlie 
cwt. or £10 the ton, and the extra value of Cuban sugar being the 
same, the profits of the slave labor sugar will be £12 the ton as above 
stated, viz : 

Cost of production of free labor, per ton, £20 00s. 

Duty on do. per ton, 10 00 

Cost in market to planter, ". £30 00s. 

Cost of slave labor, do £12 00s. 

Duty on do., 10 00 22 00 

Surplus profit of slave labor, 8 00s. 

Extra value of do., 4 00 

Total excess of profit to slaveholder, £12 00s. 

Who cannot see that such advantages as the Cuban and Brazili:;!: 
slaveholders now possess, may enable them to banish free lalior suirars 
from the English markets ! But to gain a clear understanding of the 
reason why the slaveholding planters of Cuba, Brazil, &;c., can pro- 
duce sugar at a cost so much lower than those of Jamaica, and other 
free labor tropical countries, it is necessary again to call attention to 
the diflerence in their ability to command labor. In the former 
countries, not including the United States, the planters can command 

* Blackwood's Mag. 1848, p. 230. 

t The estimates have been made for Muscovadoes only, and the expense of 
freights not included. 



152 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 

tlic labor of a slave population of 'i, 100,000, wliilc the latter luivc 
only hGyTjOOO."" It must be noticed, also, that ibis f-laYe population 
is compelled, under the lash, to perlnrm a liill day's work every day 
in the week, and that in crop time the labor is ofien extended to 
ciirhteen hours per ilay;t wliile the fiee men of Jam:iica» &:c., igno- 
rant, depressed, and discouraged,/;?/ i(iie(^iHtl laws, conleiw. tliemselves 
with leisurely putting in iVum live to seven hours in the day, during 
only three or four days of the w^eek.l 

We certainly nerd not i.dd anything more in support of ihe propo- 
sition, that /ree lal/or, under present circumstances, caimct com] cie 
u-ith slave labor in tropical cultivation, and that, therefore, chrit^tian 
governments cannot escape from the necessity of confuming slave 
labor products, except hy calling into active service, on an extensive 
scale, the free lal)or of countries not at present producing tiie cum- 
niodiiies upon which slave labor is employed. 

V. That Africa is the principal field where free labor can be made to 
compete, successfully, with slave labor, in the production of 
exportable tropical commodities. 

To demonstrate the truth of this proposition it is demanded ; First, 
that it be shown that the soil and climate of Africa are well adapted 
to tlic production of Sugar, (Jodee, and Cotton; and Second, that the 
natives can be successfully employed in their cultivation. 

In relation to the first point, there is no longer any doubt an:ong 
intelligent men. Coffee, equal, if not superior, to tliat of Java or 
Mocha, is raised in Liberia, and can be easily cultivated to any 
extent. The shrub bears fruit thirty or forty years, each producing 
ten pounds annually. Cotton, of a superior quality, yielding two 
crops a year, is indigenous, and thrives twelve or fourteen years 
without renewing the plant. Sugar Cane grows in unrivaled lux- 
uriance; and, as there are no frosts to he dreaded, can lie brought to 
mucii tireater perfection than in our Soutiiern States. § Other articles 
of great value are raised in Lil)eria, but it is uimecessarv to specify 
them, or to enlarge this branch of our investigations; as Dr. J. W. 
Luiscnlxcl, late United States Agent, in Liberia, and Superintendent 
of the .Medical School of the Colony is publisliing a series of essays 
upon liie subject. The Doctor resided live or six years in Africa, 
and hatl an excellent opportunity for employing liis eminent talents 
to examine the (icography, the l*roduciions, tiie Climate, as well as 
the Diseases of tlic ISew Ivepulilic. His essays enibr;ice all these 
topics, and afford ample information, in rehition to Liberia, for all 
who wish to learn the facts. 

On the second point much information has been collected, and it 
is no longer doubted in Liberia, that the labor of natives can be made 
available. 'I'he Colony numbtrs about 150,000 souls. |) JNlany 

• Present rnrf, p. \W. t S.-oond Part. p. 92. 

{ PrcMciit Part, p. 11(5. (j .\frican Il.'pository. July, 1650 

U PreBidciit lluberls' message to Liberia Li'gislatiuv, Dec, 1849. 



Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 153 

cf thpse natives are becoming industrious, by the example of the 
colonists, and ihe desire to possess the conifbrts of civilized life, 
S(ime are parii:dly educated, and one, a few ye;irs ngo, occupied a 
seal in tlie Legislature. Many of them liave married persons born 
in the United Stales, and thereby become more idcntiiied with the 
ciiizeus of the Republic. The colonists, of ability, can secure, from 
tlie natives, all the labor necessary, at very low icages. This is now 
so well understood as to discourage those emigrants, from the United 
States, who desire to go as day laborers. 

Mr. Ed. J. Roye, a merchant of Monrovia, fully confirms this 
statement, in a Utter to Mr. W. H. Burnliam, of Zanesville, Ohio. 
lie mentions it as the chief discouragement to emigrants dependent 
upon labor for a subsistence, but adds, that many of the poor Ameri- 
cans in the colony " are already turning their attention to farming, 
which pays well." "To men of character, education, wealth, and 
enterprise, nothing can be considei'ed beyond their reach, and no 
station, in the Republic, too high to be attained." * 

At first view this seems- disheartening to the poor colored man; 
but to discerning men, Liberia presents stronger claims on this 
account. Mr. Roye's statement proves two things important to 
Europe and America. 1. That native labor can be had cheap. 2. 
That those emigrants who engage in agriculture, can do well. 

What is most important to elevate and eimoble the poor emigrant, 
is, to forget the days of his bondage, stand erect as a freeman, and 
depend alone upon the strength of his own arm, and the blessing of 
God. Cringing to others unmans him. To place him in circum- 
stances which will force him to agricultural or mechanical pursuits, 
is best calculated to create in his breast a feeling of manly indepen- 
dence. And, God willing, this is wiiat Colonizationists are determined 
to do for the free colored people of the United States. 

The desire to possess the commodities supplied by the commerce 
of civilized nations is evidently much stronger in the people of 
Africa, even where the influence of the Colonies is but little felt, 
than in those of any other barbarous country. This desire has been 
generated by the slave trade, and is the principal obstacle to its sup- 
pression. Having no fruits of agricultural labor to ofler for the arti- 
cles they desire, slave hunts are made the means of procuring slaves 
to give in exchange. And such is the strength with which this 
desire for traffic with foreigners operates, and such their uuwilling- 
ne'ss to be deprived of it, that in the late purchase of Gallinas, when 
the clilefs sold their territory to President Roberts, they expressly 
stipulated for the establishment of commerce upon a permanent basis. 
Tliey knew very well that the slave trade was to cease from that 
moment, and, as an equivalent, demanded, not oidy a large sum of 
money, but that commissioners should be immediately appointed " to 
settle the wars in the country, (because wars will now no longer be 

* This s?ems to have been prophetic luiifruage, as. since It was written, Mr. 
Roye has held a seat in the Legislature of Liberia, and been chosen Speaker of 
tlie House of Representatives. 



154 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 

useful when the captives taken cannot be sold,) and open ilio trades 
in Camwood, Ivory, and Palm oil, will) tiie inttriortribes; andalsc to 
settle among them, as soon as convenient, persons capable of mslnicl- 
iiifr them in tlie arts ol" Husbandry."* 

Bnt c:ui the native labor ol' Africa be made to compete with tlie 
slave labor of other tropical countries, and supply the christian world 
^vlth that immense amount of coffee, su^ar, and cotton, it now con- 
sumes I This is the great question. If the native be left, widiont 
the aid of I'orcign intelligence, to develop his intellectual and moral 
powers, he nuist remain titled only for a life of slavery abroad, or of 
savage indolence at home. But if the Republic of Lil)eria be suji- 
jilied with a sufficient number of industrious, inlelhgenl, and moral 
emigrants, to enable it to extend its settlements and its laws aioiuul 
the coast, and into the interior, a few years only will elapse before 
the natives, coming under the influence of civilization, will experi- 
ence such an increase of wants as can be supplied only by industry. 
What has already occurred in the present settlements of Liberia will 
follow in all new ones, and a spirit of industry be awakened as far 
and as rapidly as the colonization of the country shall be accomplished. 

We have previously shownt that the stereotyped character nf tlio 
Pa^an nations of Eastern Asia, renders it diflicull to stimulate the 
inhabitants to a much greater degree of industry than already exists, 
and that such free labor cannot compete witti slave labor. W hy, 
then, should we exi)ect that the native labor of heathen Africa shoidii 
be more available, and made to compete with slave labor? 'I'he 
answer to this question is obvious. Without the inlroduciion of 
Christian civilization, ntither of them can pros;rcss. But tlie hum- 
ble African yields more readily to the in.-truction of the Christian 
missionary than the proud Asiatic. The hope of Africa's earli( r 
civilization is, therefore, daily brightening, and the i)robabilily of 
exciting iis inhabitants to industry becoming more certain. 

We close tiiis part of the inquiry by a quotation from the Annual 
l^eporl of the American Missionary Association, fi,r 1849, which not 
only alfords an explanation of the causes that make Asia less acces- 
sible to the (lospel than Africa, but supplies additional testimony in 
regard to the adaptaiion of the soil of Africa to the produciion of 
sugar and cotton. This mission had its origin in the lilieratioii, and 
return to Africa, of the .'^m/s/of/ slaves. It is located at Kaw-Mendi, 
on the Western coasi of Africa, some distance from the sea, and lies 
between Sierra Leone and Liberia. The Uev. IMr. 'I'iiomtson, once 
imprisoned in the I'enitenliary of the State of Missouri, for aiding 
slaves to escape from iheir masters, is now at the head (if this inis- 
sioii. This testimony is valuable, coming, as it dois, from Aboli- 
tloni^ts, from whom colonization in Africa has leceived hut liiile 
cuuntetiance. The Heport says : 

" 'i'he suirar cane and cotton grow well in that country, aiul if 
American Christians could send out business men, who could leach 

» 1,-it.r nf rr.-;i.:.c.l KolxTts, May 17, IS.'iO. fTuuo 121. 



Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 155 

natives l1ie mnniifacture of sugar, and ihe best method of raising 
cotton, it would contribute much to the overthrow of slavery, and 
facilitate the progress of the gospel. Tlie mission makes earnest 
appeals for such assistance." The Report also says, that "Africa 
presents some peculiar advantages for missionary work, and some 
strony claims upon American christians for help." It sums tliem up 
as follows : 

" 1. Tliat country is nearer to us than any other foreign mis- 
sionary field. 

"2. The country is apparently open to us, and its governments 
will offer no serious opposition to our entering any part of it. 

" 3. The people see and appreciate the superiority of men in civil- 
ized life, and desire the cultivation which will raise them lo me same 
grade. 

"4. There is there, no hoary and venerated system of supersti- 
tion, inwrought into the forms of society, and presenting at every 
point opposition to change. 

"A reason more powerful, perhaps, than any other, to induce us to 
engage iu this work, is the deep degradation of Africa, superinduced by 
the slave trade, in which Americans have taken so prominent a part," 

Much additional testimony on this subject might be presented, but 
time will not permit. We shall, therefore, close our discussion of 
this proposition with a brief statement of the main facts by which its 
truth is sustained. 

Could England and the United States be induced to engage ener- 
getically, to promote the growth of cofiee, sugar, and cotton, in Africa, 
they would gain an immense advantage over the planters of Cuba 
and Brazil, and be able to strike an eflicient blow at the slave trade 
and slavery. What are the facts ? 

For every 300 men made available, by the slave trade, to the 
Culian and BraziUian planters, Africa loses 1,000;* or the proportion 
may be stated as three to ten. In the transfer of the three to Cuba 
and Brazil, their constitutions are impaired by the "middle passage," 
and in seven years they sink beneath the oppressive labor to which 
they are sulijected. Their places must be supplied, at least every 
seven years, by //iree others from Africa, subjecting her to the loss of 
another ten. At every point in Africa, occupied by a colony, the 
slave trade is at once excluded, and its agents are driven to other 
points to secure their victims. This will leave, at the places occu« 
pied, the whole teyi men who had formerly been sacrificed to supply 
three to the Cul)an planters. 

Now, though the industry of the native African should fall far 
below the standard of the ever-active and enterprising ^^inglo Saxon; 
yet a litde consideration will enable us to perceive that, under the 
circumstances, the native population of Africa will be able, not only 
to compete with /he staves of Cuba and Brazil, but will constitute the 
only reliable force for the suppression of the slave trade. 



* Buxton, see Lecture First, p. 8. 



150 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 

Tlie niaxiiiuim of labor required of the three slaves in Cub?, is 
eis;hlein hours a day.^ By preventing tlie transfer of these three 
nun, we shall have ten to enipU.y in Africa. If these ten men can 
be induced to labor only five hours and a half per day, the product 
will more than equal that of the three in Cuba. The case would 
stand thus : 

3 slaves in Cuba, laboring 18 hours per day = 54 hours. 
10 freemen in Africa " 5^ " " = 55 " 

The teji men in Africa, laboring but 5^ hours per day, would, there- 
fore, be able to compete with the three in Cuba or Brazil. 

The reason that Jamaica, or any of the other free labor colonies, 
cannot compete with Cuba, Brazil, &c., is, that the freemen of the 
former, either from indolent habits, or from attention to cultivating 
their own small tracts of land, or from being engaged in other pur- 
suits, do not choose to labor for the sugar planters more than from 
five to seven hours a day, and I'rom three to four days /n the u'eek.\ 
It is not asserted, that while engaged, tiie free laborer does not per- 
form as much work as a slave, 'i'he difficulty in Jamaica is, that the 
planters, out of the free population, cannot Jind men enough, to put 
in as many hours labor, as those of Cuba, by a free use of the whip, 
are able to obtain from their slaves. Laboring so irregularly, even 
were their numbers equal, it would be impossible for the 1,657,000 
colored freemen of the Western Hemisphere to compete with the 
7.057,000 slaves which it includes.^ 'I'he difficulty in making the 
free lalior of the British and French West Indies compete with the 
slave labor of Cuba and Brazil, arises, therefore, from the want of an 
equal number of hands willing to perform an equal amount of labor 
at an equal cost. Tlie American Colonization Society has discovered 
that this discrepancy can be remedied by a direct attention to Africa, 
nhii-h shall call into aciivity, as free laborers, its 100.000,000 of 
])<'ople, as rivals, in tropical cultivation, to the before mentioned 7,057,- 
OHO slaves. But to oiitain a clear conception of the evonomir.al 
advantages of employing the people of Africa ^ipon their own soil, 
over thai of transj)ortitig them to Cuba and Brazil, it must be recol- 
Ircied, that as soon as the ten men in Africa could be persuaded to 
labor len hours a day, ihey would double the products of the three 
ill Cuba. It nnist also be remembered, that the tin, remaining in 
ihiir native dirnate, and bdonging to a race of the sr^iatcst long- 
er if y kiioivn, could be nlieil upon as regular laborers, (br a nuich 
li'Ugrr period than the thne enfeebled and overworked slaves of 
Cuba. 'J'his remark :ipi)lies equally to the whole African population. 
IhuItT these circiimslaiices, it is certain that the free hibor of AlVii a, 
i:nder proper regulations and stiniulanis, can be made to compete with 
llie .slav(! labor of lirazil and the Sp;uiish ('olonies. 

Hut th' re is another fad, (if much importance, to be considered. 



• Sec Tart Secoad, p. 92. t Present Part, p. 146. 

{PrcHcut Part, p. 143 to 117. 



Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 157 

The slave population of Brazil and the Spanish Colonies, numbering 
4,100,000, or more tiian one half of tlie whole nnmber in the West- 
ern Hemisphere, is maintained alone by the slave trade. Destroy 
this trade, and their plantations would dwindle into insignificanc*^, or 
become extinct. From the rapid mortality of Uie imj)orted slaves, 
these plantations require restockintr from Africa every seven years. 
Cut off ihis supply, and Cuba and Brazil would at once be rendered 
incapable of Hooding the markets with cheap slave labor products, to 
the exclusion of free labor commo;hlies. 

We have seen that the exports from the British West Indies be^an 
to decline from the prohibition of the slave trade, in 1808, and reached 
their minimum since the emancipation in 1838.* The diminution 
of tlie exports of coffee and sugar from the British and French West 
Indies, from the periods above stated, tended to increase slavery and 
encourage the slave trade.! 'i'he constantly increasing demand for 
these products must be supplied. Cuba and Brazil endeavored, by 
increasing their number of slaves, to supply the dertciencv. This 
extended the slave trade, and it has continued to increase, with two 
or three slight variations, until the present moment.| Interrupt the 
kidnapping of slaves from Africa, and no new field can be found to 
supply the market. Hence, to destroy the slave trade, would directly 
diminish the exports of sugar and coffee from Cuba and Brazil. 

But if these prolific fountains are dried up, how is the continually 
increasing demand for these products to be supplied 1 How are the 
United States, England, and the Continent of Europe to be furnished 
with these indispensable articles ? Africa seems to furnish the only 
hope. Let England, France, and the United States, make a united 
effort to extend the benefits of Christian civilization, not only around 
the coast, but into the heart of this hitherto benighted portion of the 
earth, and the most cheering results might be anticipated. Let ac- 
cumulated wealth pour her exhauslless treasures in the lap of the 
Colonization Society, enabling it to send out to Africa multitudes of 
civilized and eidiglitened men, to diffuse intelligence and freedom 
along the shores of its rivers, and over its mountains and plains ! 
Let England, with her commerce, her wealth, her public spirit, and 
her Christianity, exert her powerful influences in extending her com- 
merce, her enterprise, and her civilization, among the nativts of this 
extensive continent! Let France unite her energies in these im- 
portant efforts, and soon Africa, free and prosperous, might almost 
supply the world with the products to which we have referred. 

From the facts before stated, it is evident that the free lalior of the 
W^est Indies is poiverlcss for the suppression of the slave trade. It 
furnishes but a limited supply of cofiee and sugar, and cannot lessen 
the inmiense demand for these products, which gives to that trade its 
profitable character. These products are of prime necessity and im- 
portance to the Christian world; and, while such a large proportion 

» Present Part, p. 128. t See p. 133 to 140, present Part. 

t Present Part, p. 135. 



158 Present lielal'ums of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 

of tliom are produced hy Ciiha :md Brazil, we are compelled to up 
hold slavery aud the slave trade hy their cousumplioii. Hut establish 
their cidlivatioii and supply, by free labor, upon a permanent basis, 
and we shall ere lon<^ be released from this dire necessity. Africa 
presents the principal, if not the only field, where all the mean? of 
thus extensively cultivating sugar, cofl'ee, and cotton, by free labor, 
can be commanded, and from which the great markets of the world 
can be successfully supplied. The reasons for this opinion may be 
thus stated : 

If the products of free labor can be increased, they will displace an 
equal amount of the products of slave labor. 'J'his will diminish the 
demand for slaves, and, consequently, lessen the extent of the slave 
trade. But the hands now employed in free labor cannot, to any 
great degree, increase their products, even at the present cost, and 
things must remain as they now are until additional free labor is else- 
where employed. These additional laborers, uilling to work for 
low 7oages, can only be found in sufficient numbers among the teeming 
population of Africa.* 

Africa, then, is the field, and its 160,000,000 of men must supply 
the laborers necessary to accomplish tliis great work, 'i'he increasing 
demand for sugar and cotl'ee has placed the wants and interests of 
Christendom in opposition to the destruction of the slave trade. 
Cuba and Brazil furnisli these great staples for the market, by slaves, 
as we have seen, brought from Africa. Hence, the Christian world, 
1)V consuming these products, have indirectly sustained both slavery 
and this abominable traffic. But let ample plantations be opened and 
cultivated in Africa, sufficient to supply the market, and you have 
reinoved the grand obstacle to the entire destruction of this trade in 
blood. 

To accomplish an object so desirable, more extensive plans must 
be devised ; the Colonization Society must enlarge the sphere of its 
operations, the number and character of emigrants must be increased, 
and a universal effijrt put forth, commensurate with the great object 
to 1)0 accomplished. 

But the direct suppression of the slave trade, as a preliminary step 
in the progress of Airican redemption, is impossible. 'J'he combined 
ell'orls of Christendom, in a forty years' struggle, have failed even in 
clucking this enormous outrage upon humanity. It may be circum- 
si-ribed, diminished, and partially suppressed, but it must dept nd, for 
its final destruction, upon the political regeneration, together with the 
inlclUn-tual elevation and moral redemption of llie entire continent. 

The alternative seems already forced upon Christendom, either to 
encourage slavery and the slave trade, by continuing to consume the 
produce of Brazil and Cuba, or to set about speeddy accomplishing 
llie civilization of Africa. 

» The cultivation of cotton lias been commenced nt the British Colony of 
Port N:itnl, ill S. Iv Afrlc:i, says the London Ecoiioinist, and llii^ labor of the 
/■lolooR cnn be had nt ten Klullii)g.s the inoiitli. Tho wages of native laborers is 
aljoul the BQtnc nt Liberia. 



Present Relations of Free lAihor to Slave Labor. 15!) 

The great theater, then, upon wliicli tlie buttle between free labor 
and sbcUP (jbor is to be fought, is in Africa; and {•oU)nization is llie 
all-p()ten> igent which is to marshal the free labor forces, and lead 
'ihem oil to victory. But tliis warfare, unlike all precednig conte--ts, 
is one literally demanding that every sword shall be bea'en into 
a plowshare, and every spear into a priniinghook. In this campaign, 
li/luif^ the soil, anil not slayins; men, is ihe duty required ; and the 
advantages are so decidedly witli free labor, that ultimate success is 
certain. Each industrious emigrant to an African colony, wdl more 
than equal a dozen slaves lalioring elsewhere. His example and his 
influence, acting upon the native population, will excite to industry a 
dozen, or twenty, or a hundred more; and these, again, will exert an 
iuiluence upon others, and so on indefinitely. 

Who can doubt, under such circumstances, that Africa, with its 
multitudinous population, is the field where free labor may be made 
successfully to compete with slave lai)or, in the productions to wliich 
we have so often referred, and that the Colonization Society is the 
medium through which, in the Providence of God, the slave trade is 
to be finally destroyed ? 

VI. That there are moral forces and commercial considerations 
now in operation, which will, necessarily, impel christian govern- 
menls to exert their inlluence for the civilization of Africa, and the 
promotion of the prosperity of the Republic of Jiberia, as t le 
principal agency in this great work, and that in ihese facts lies our 
encouragement to persevere in our colonization efl'orts. 

This proposition opens up a wide field of discussion, but in its 
consideration we must be brief. 

There have been moral forces acting upon England and the Uni- 
ted Slates, for many years past, to such an extent that these govern- 
ments have been driven to the adoption of energetic measures for 
ameliorating the condition of the people of Africa. Much has been 
done in these efforts, and much more remains to be done. In the 
United States, 4(50,000 colored people have obtained their freedom, 
and in tbe English Colonies nearly 800,000 rejoice in being released 
from bondage. The slave trade has been prohibited, declared piracy, 
and costly efforts for its suppression long prosecuted. But though 
the measures devised, for the relief of the African race, l)y these 
governments, have failed in the accomplishment of all the good anti- 
cipated, and in some respects, most sadly failed ; yet these moral 
forces have lost none of their power, but are still propelling the two 
nations onward to the final accompli^^hment of the gn at work of 
Africa's redemption from barbarism. During the course of these 
efforts much light has been thrown on this subject, and it is believed 
that, tlirough the agency of the Colonization Society, the proper 
pnnciples have been developed by which the suppression of the slave 
trade and the civilization of Africa may be efiVcted. 

In making this declaration, we do not intend to cliiin more of 



100 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 

wisQom ami pliilanthropy for tlie United States than for England. The 
diireienne in the character of the measures adopted, and the diffprenre 
in the rc?nlts attained, liave hcen caused hy tlie diUcreiice in the 
circiunstances of the people of the two countries. Fifty years aire 
the English people looked to tlie Crown and Parliament, to execute 
almost every enterprise of a religious or benevolent character. 'I'iiat 
government, like all others, in all its movements, has to consider well 
the promotion of its own interests. To adopt any other rule of 
action, is deliberately to aim at self-destruction. The danger, then, 
with nations, as with individuals, when sutTering humanity makes its 
appeal, is that the measures adopted for relief, may include more 
ol the sel/mh than of the benevolent principle, and failure, or only 
partial success, attend the efforts made. 

Wiien the moral forces directed against the slave trade and slavery, 
by the people of England, reached the government in sufiicient power 
to compel it to action, that great leailing interest of the British nation, 
the cormnercial element, became too closely blended witii the benev- 
olent, and the policy adopted proved to be too narrow to remove the 
evils sougluto be destroyed. 

In the United States, the moral forces commenced their opera- 
tions at a very early period, and our independence had scarcely been 
attained, when the government enacted its laws for prohibitmg the 
slave trade, and declared it piracy.* Since that period, they have 
acted with less force upon tin; government, and nearly all sidjsequent 
efforts have either been by a few of the Slates, separately, or by the 
people. This course of action seems more in accordance with, and 
necessarily to grow out of, the spirit of our free institutions. While 
the government suppresses great public evils, and oversees the civil 
and military aflairs of the nation, it only protects citizens in all dicir 
benevolent enterprises and religious interests, but never undertakes to 
conduct or control these movements for the people, 'i'he people, 
therefore, do not depend upon the government to conduct such affairs, 
but execute, freely, their own purposes, in accordance with their 
own peculiar views. The eflbrts of our people, in behalf of tlic 
African race, have been conducted by associations of individuals, 
and, consequently, the schemes adopted have borne the imprests of 
the ndnds that conceived and conducted them. This bus iieen em- 
phatically true of the American Colonization Society. Indiviilual or 
goveriunental interests being in no way involved in this enterprise, 
and it being, in its origin, chiefly under the control of christian men, 
it took the broadest possible ground that christian plHlanlJiro|iy dic- 
tated, and thus a scheme was devised broad cnoi/glt to accompli^li the 
destruction of the ^lave trade, and the work of Africa's redemption. 
'I'lie rcli<(ioi/.'i clement predominated in its organization, and the 
Cdinincrrial was cxcludfcl. 

Had this work been undertaken by our government, it would, no 
doubt, have adopted the policy of England, and made the colony iii 



*• See Parts First and Second. 



Present Rcla'iuns of Free Labor to Slave Labor. ICl 

Africa subservient to the interests of the parent country. Such, it 
must be expected, ■•a'ouUI have been the action of all governments in 
like cases. But the Colonization Society, originating solely in chriii 
iian benevolence, has only sought the welfare of the African people, 
and aimed at creating for tliein an independent government, to bf 
conducted wholly by themselves. In this it has succeeded ; and not 
m this only, but it has developed a practical plan for the suppression 
of the slave trade, in the success of which all the nations are equally 
interested, and all may equally cooperate. 

'J'his view of the tendency of colonization in Africa, is now 
generally entertained. Besides many other authorities of the highest 
order, it is very fully admitted by a committee of the British Parlia- 
ment, in a recent Report on the Slave Trade. The commitlee first 
show that England's long-cherished plan of an armed repression of 
the slave trade — costing her one hundred and forty millions of dol- 
lars, and hundreds of tlie lives of her subjects — had failed in its 
object, and that no modification in the system can be expected to 
succeed, and then close with the following testimony to the system of 
colonization, as the most effective mode of destroying that traffic : 

"Your committee entertain the hope, that the internal improve- 
ment and civilization of Africa will be one of the mos-t effective 
means of cliecking the slave trade, and for this purpose, that the 
instruction of the natives by missionary labors, by education, and by 
all other practical eflorts, and the extension of legitimate commerce, 
ought to be encouraged wherever the influence of England can be 
directed, and especially where it has already been beneficially 
exerted."* 

Tiiis, then, is the position, in reference to the African question, 
into which we have been conducted by the operation of the moral 
forces upon England aud the United Slates. Our scheme of Coloni- 
zation, being wholly independent of national interests, except what 
are common to all ; and including within itself all the elements 
necessary to secure the civilization of Africa and the destruction of 
the slave trade ; now receives the approbation of the philanthropists 
of both countries, and secures to the Republic of Liberia, from the 
government of England, that countenance and aid which is the surest 
guarantee of its rising importance in the benevolent work of African 
regener;ition. If, therelore, Colonization can receive sufficient aid to 
develop, fully, the elements of its organization, a speedy consum- 
mation of the great work it has in view may be anticipated. 

From whence, tlien, are the additional aids to come, which, added 
to the moral forces in operation, shall propel, with sufficient rapidity, 
this great work of African civilization, and free the world I'rom the 
reproach and the curse of the slave trade ? They exist, principally, 
it is believed, in the commercial consideralions which begin to 
demand, most imperiously, that the rich lands of tropical Africa sliall 
De brought under cultivation, and made to yield to commerce those 

* North British I^eview, August, 18-19, p. 255. 
11 



1C2 Present Eclations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 

articles, winch free labor and slave labor, both combined, are now 
iiicajKible of riirnishing, in adequate quantities, from the fields at 
jircscnt cultivated. 

'I'lie moral forces, though acting with much energy, and in other 
respects, doing much good, liave been unable to destroy the slave 
liade, because ol the couuieractiug influence of the commercial con- 
sicleralions enlisted in its bchall'. But the wants of commerce are 
beginning to demand the execution of the plans which tiie moral 
forces alone could not perform. Then, as the two great elements of 
success noiv coincide, it seems that their influence must he irresisii- 
l)lo, and the effect certain. 'J'he mural forces must continue to exert 
their full eflbct, because they cannot become qxiiescnit, while the 
Chri.-itiaji tcorld is dependent upon slave labor annually,* 

For cotton, to the amount of . . . . 1,101,330,800 pounds. 
P^or coffee, to the amount of . . . . 338,2 10,000 " 
For sugar, at least 1,220,000,000 " 

and largely for many otlier articles of prime necessity. That com- 
viercial considerations are beginning to act, in the direction of 
African amelioration, with much urgency, is easily shown. The 
increased production of coffee and cotton, throughout the world, is 
by no means keeping pace with their increased consumption. In 
former years, there was often a large stock of coflee remaining on 
hand at the close of each year. But latterly the increased consump- 
tion has been so rapid that it has gained on the production, and left a 
greatly diminished stock at the year's end. The deficit df coffee in 
tlie markets for 1849 advanced the price very largely, and the sup])ly 
for the present year, as estimated l)y the most competent auihorities.l 
will be 70,000,000 pounds beloiv the present known consumption of 
Europe and the United States. 

'I'he extensive range of statistics which have been presented, in 
relation to the production of cotton, have been mostly taken from the 
London Economist, for January 1850; and we must allow its al)lc 
editor to sum up the results of his elaborate investigations. + He 
says :§ 

" Now, bearinu; in mind that l/ic fif(i/rfs in the above tables are, 
trilh scarcely an euception, ascertained facts, and not estimates, let 
us sum the conclusions to which they have conducted us ; coiu-lu- 
sions sufficient, if not to alarm us, yet certainly to create much 
uneasiness, and to suggest great caution on the part of all concerned, 
directly or indirecdy, in the great manufaclure of England. 

" 1 'i'liat our supply of ( otton /Vo/zt all ([Uarters, (e.tcludius: the 
I'liited Slates,) has fur many years been dcciiUilly, though irregularly, 
dirrea.'ii)ii(. 

" 2. 'J'hat our supply of cotton from all (juarters, (including tiie 
United iSlatcs,) available for home consumjilion, has of late years 



• See PrcHent Part, p. 133. + Hunt's Mprchant's Magazine, Aug. 1850. 

I Page 138. § The italics arc liis own. 



Present Rda'ions of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 1C3 

bern filliiiir off at the rate of 400,000 pounds a week, while our con- 
siunptioii has been increasing during the same period at the rate of 
1,410,000 pounds a week. 

" 3. Tiiat the United States is the only country where the growlli 
of cotlon is on tlie increase ; and that there even the increase does 
not on an average exceed 3 per cent, or 32,000,000 pounds annually, 
wiiich is barely sufficient to supply the increasing demand for its 
own consumption, and for the continent of Europe. 

" 4. That no stimulus of price can materially augment this annual 
increase, as the planters always grow as much cotton as llie negro 
population can pick. 

" 5. That, consequently, if the cotlon manufacture of Great Bri- 
tain is to increase at all— oa its present footing — it can only be 
enabled to do so by applying a great stimulus to the growth of cot- 
ton in other countries adapted for the culture."* 

The writer also presents the following historical sketch of th<> 
cotton trade of Engla id, and closes wilh a statement of the reason 
why otiier countiies have diminished their production of cotton. 
It will be seen that it is due to the fact, that they are unable to com- 
pete widi the United States in its production. We can supply the 
markets so much cheaper than they are able to do, that our cotton is 
driving theirs from the English market. The writer says : 

" Within the memory of many now living, a great change has 
taken plai;e in the countries from which our main l)ulk of cotton is 
procured. In the infancy of our manufacture our chief supply came, 
from the Mediterranean, especially from Smyrna and Malta. Neither 
of these places now sends us more than a few chance bags occasion- 
ally. In the last century the West Indies were our principal source. 
In the year 1786, out of 20,000,000 pounds imported, 5,000,000 
cnme from Smyrna, and the rest from the West Indies. In 1848 the 
West Indies sent us only 1,300 bales, (520,000 pounds.) In 1781, 
Brazil began to send us cotton, and the supply thence continued to 
increase, tliough irregularly, till 1830, since which time it has fallen 
oir to one half. About 1822, Egyptian cotton began to come in 
Considerable quantities ; its cultivation having been introduced into 
that country two years before. The import exceeded 80,000 bales, 
(32,000,000 pounds,) in 1845. The average of the last three years 
has not been a third of that quantity. Cotton has always been 
grown largely in Hindostan, but it did not send much to England till 
about thirty years ago. In the five years, ending in 1824, the yearly 
average import was 33,000 bales; in 1841 it reached 274,000; and 
may now be roughly estimated at 200,000 bales a year, (80,000,000 
pounds.) 

'• Now what is the reason why these countries, after having at one 
time produced so largely and so well, should have ceased or curtailed 

*We have not copied all the tables of figures from which these opinions have 
Deen formed, but only sucli as were needed in our argument. 



IG 1 Present lieJations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. \ 

their growtlj within rfcciit years ? Il is clearly a question of price. 
Lot us consider a few of llie cases : 



At the close of the years. 


Lowest 

price of 

Pernambuco, 


Fall 
per 
cent. 


Lowest 

price of 

Maranham 


Fall 1 Lowi-.st 

per 1 price of 

cent. Egyptian. 


Fall Lowest 
per price of 
cent. Surat. 


Fall 
per 
cent. 


1H36-1839 inclusive 
1840-1843 


9.W 

Id 

hid 


36' 


Aid 


.... IQid 
.... Id 
42 bid 


... AU 
....' Ud 
43 1 2ld 




1844-1848 


40 







"Here, surely, may be read tlie explanation of the deplorable fall- 
ing off in our miscellaneous supply." 

From these facts, thus clearly stated by the Economist, and wliicli 
can be supported from many other authorities, it is plain that tiiere 
are at least two cominodilies, Coffee and Cotton, wliicii are not sup- 
plied in adequate quantities, ei-en i';?/ the combined efforts of both free 
and slave labor; nor can the commercial demand, especially for cot- 
ton, be met but by an extension of its cultivation to ot/icr countries 
not engaged in its production. 

Cotton, is so essential to England, that she must have a supply 
upon which she can depend. A short crop in the United States, 
like that of 1847, or tiie occurrence of any event which would di- 
minish our production to any extent, would aflect the commercial 
and manufacturing interests of Great Britian most seriously — so 
seriously, indeed, that, as a wise government, she is bound to protect 
herself against such a contingency. The truth of this asseriion is 
made apparent, at once, on taking a view of the value of her exports 
of cotton goods, as compared with those of her other manufactures. 

Exports of Cotton Goods, by England, in the years stated. 



183t* value 
1835* " 
1830* » • 



$102,507,930 

110,498,065 

• 153,014,500 



1837'^ value 

1848t " 
1849t " • 



$102,940,410 
114,400,000 
139,453,970 



Jf'oollen Goods. 
1848t value . $32,554,815 | 1849t value . $42,090,050 

Si/k Manufactures. 
1848t value . $2,940,585 | 1849t value . $5,001,785 

Linen Manufactures. 
18i8t value . $10,481,190 | 1849t value . $20,517,215 

Truly, her Cotton Manufactures is the right arm of England, be- 
cause it is llie principal element in sustaining her commerce, 'i'iiis 
great loading iiiioresl, then, slie will never consent to sacrifice. 13ut 
it is now tbrcalened with an insifficient stipply of the raw material. 
'J'lic clforts to extend the cultivation of cotton in India; by native labor, 
Il ivc been abortive ; that I'or introducing it mto the heart of Africa, fy 
the agency of white men, at the time of the Niger exiicdition, i)roved 
disastrous ; and the British government is now anxiously looking 



•.M'Cullonfrh, vol. 1, p. C51. tLondon Economist, Feb. 1850, p. 196, 



Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 105 

abroad for the means of placing its cotton manufactures in a condition 
of greater security. The diminishing production in all other countries, 
but ours, is alarming to her, when she considers that the increased 
production in the United States, has been, and will probably continue 
to be, oidy equal to the increase of the slave population — viz : 3 per 
cent, per annum* — and that this increased production is all required 
by the increased demand consequent upon the multiplication of 
spindles and looms in the United States and on the Continent of 
Europe. It must also be noticed, that the demand for cotton fabrics 
is increasing in proportion to the increase of wealth and the extension 
of civilization. WiUiout an increased supply of the raw material, 
Great Britain, therefore, cannot participate in the advantages of this 
increasing demand, and must sufler loss. This is a position she will 

*At a subsequent date, from that before quoted, the London Economist, 
prompted by the suggestions of many English friends, resumed the consideration 
of tlie subject of the probable increase of the ratio of cotton production in tlie 
United States. It had been urged, that by the transfer of the slave population 
from other districts and other pursuits to that of cotton, the ratio of increase 
might be augmented so that the production in the United States should be made 
to equal the increasing consumption. But the conclusion arrived at is adverse 
to tliis view, and his opinion strengthened that the United States cannot meet 
the growing demands of commerce. 

But there is one consideration which the Economist has overlooked, and whicli 
seems to have been but seldom noticed, that will be found to present an impassa- 
ble barrier to the unlimited extension of cotton production in the United States. 
We refer to the Geology of the cotton region of this country; and we do so be- 
cause tlie importance of the facts we state will be understood in England. 

Public duties have taken us over many parts of the cotton growing States, 
including North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama. 
A considerable portion of the uplands of the three first-named States, are com- 
posed of Primary rocks, having often but a light covering of soil, which, from its 
loose porous nature, on cultivation, is easily swept away by heavy rains, or soon 
becomes exhausted by a succession of crops. The more common plan of renew- 
ing such exhausted lands, is to abandon their cultivation until a new growth of 
timber, arising and maturing, and shedding its foliage from year to year, restores 
a new soil, to be again cultivated and again abandoned. There are lands in North 
Carolina which have been thus turned out and re-enclosed three or four times 
since the settlement of the country. 

Another portion of these States consists of the sands, clays, marls, &c., of the 
Tertiary formation, some of which furnish more permanent soils than the Pri- 
mary; but all of which are liable to exhaustion, to a greater or less extent, under 
cultivation, and demand manuring to keep them productive. 

The valleys are mostly of Alluvial deposites, and often of inexhaustible fertility. 
And last, tliere is a limited extent of these States composed of the Chalk, or 
Rotten Limestone, as it is locally called. Tiiis formation usually affords rich soils. 

In Mississippi and Alabama, and the cotton growing portion of Tennessee, the 
Primary rocks do not appear; but the Silurian, Deconian, and Carbonifrrous 
limestones, sandstones, and shales, mostly constitute the highlands. Li the lime- 
stone districts the soils are generally rich, and, with proper attention to manur- 
ing, will remain inexhaustible. The sandstone and shale districts of course 
afford soils liable to exhaustion, unle.ss recourse is had to liming as well as jnan- 
uring. A considerable portion of the surface, in the mountainous and hilly 
regions, occupied by these formations, is too rugged and rocky for cultivation. 

The less elevated districts of these States, are composed of alternate beds of 
pure sands and clays, and of ferruginous sands and clays, and marlite, of the 
Tertiary formation ; or the massive Chalk deposites ; or of Diluvium, Fost- 
Diluvium (?) and Alluvium. The soils of the Tertiary arc very variable in their 



1G6 Trcsent liclaltons of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 

not long occupy — that she does woineed to occupy — because she can 
release lierself I'rom it. 

But in the eflbrts hitlierto made by England, and seconded by otlier 
Christian nations, she has been driven Iroin measure to measure — 
each seeming to promise success, and each, in succession, partially 
or totally failing — until this moment, when commercial considera- 
tions are pressing, with their strongest force, for the extension of 
cotton cultivation to other countries than those now engaged in its 
production. Now, the most remarkable feature in the partial successes 
and complete failures of the national schemes (ur the destruction of 
the slave trade, and kindred evils, is the evidence they afibrd of a 
superintending Providence, overruling in the affairs of men for the 
accomplishment of His own purj)oses through the agency of individ- 
uals or nations. It now begins to appear, as clear as the sun at 

qualities — the clay and sandy strata soon becoming exhausted and the ferruginous 
and marly j)ortions often being very durable. Tlie chalk supplies some of the 
riciicst soils known, but in places having only a thin covering of soil and being 
nearly pure carbonate of lime, in ilry seasons, the cotton, as the planters express 
it, is often burnt out. With abundance of manure, this formation can be kept 
perpetually fertile. It is of considerable e.xteiit in Mississip])i and Alabama- 
'I'lic fiTtility of the Alluvium of the valleys is, of course, mostly inexhaustible- 
1"he Diluvium is of limited range and the Post-Diluvium more extensive. Both 
itfTord some good soils and much that are soon exhausted. 

The indispensable article of manure, throughout the three States first named, 
is difficult to obtain. The cultivation of cotton affords nothing but the meager 
sujiply of its own seed for restoring the fertility of the soil, and this seed is mostly 
used on the corn crop. The chief remaining method of supplying manures, is 
tedious and expensive, and is accomplished by collecting the fallen leaves from 
the forest trees of the mountains or nearest uncultivated lands. These are 
thrown in bulk into the farm yards, where cattle are confined, until sufficiently 
rotted and intermixed with excrement, when the mass is strewed in the drills 
during the planting of the cotton crop. 

^Manuring has not yet been much resorted to in the fresher lands of the south 
Western St;ites. All these lands, except the Alluvium, in all these States, will 
need manures to sustain their fertility- But in cultivating cotton exclusively, 
manures, in sufficient (juantities, ca««o< be produced, us they may in grain-growing 
districts, to keep up the productiveness of the lands ; and, consequently, the 
production of cotton cannot be increased in a ratio much beyond that of the 
jiresent. If cotton only is cultivated, the lands become exhausted; and if a sys- 
li-m of rotation of cro])S be adopted, to prevent the exhaustion of the soil, the 
quantity of cotton is diminished. It will be amusing to the English Scientific 
Agriculturist to know, that so far as any reference is had to the restoration of 
th>' fertility of the soil, in the Carolinas, by a change of crops, the system of 
rotation has been Cotton and I'iue .' Cotton and Vine ! ! Arkansas and Texas 
j)osses8 nearly the same geological characteristics as Georgia, Mississippi, and 
Alabama. 

Without entering into further details, wo are convinced that, as a Geologist, 
we hazard but little in saying, that a considerable portion of the cotton Janils, of 
thr older Konthern Siati-s, must continile to wear out under constant cultiratinn ; 
/ind that similar results, though less ra])id in their ()i)erali()n, owing to ditler- 
ences in their Geology, uinst alx) follow iii the newer States ; and that, therefore, 
the dindnulinn in the quantity of lands that will renui Derate the cultivator, though 
for tlie i)reseut not equal to the quantity of new laiuis brought into use, will, 
nevertheless, reach to such an extent as to nmder it imjjossible, for any yreat 
iiumbir (if yrurs, to increa.se the ])roduclion of cotton much beyond the present 
ratio of Uireo per cent, per unnuui. 



Present Beiations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 167 

noonilay, tliat all tliese combinations of events — sureeeding as they 
have (lone, each other — have tended to one grand result, worlliy oC the 
wisdom ol' Deity ; and that result the involving of the principal nations 
ol" Christendom in sncli difficulties and perplexities — all seeming to be 
tlie natural fruits of their former connection with African oppression — 
as nmst impel tiieni forward, from necessity, moral and commercial^ 
to the civilizaiion of Africa, 

The London Economist, in the article before quoted, after having 
shown that Brazil, Egypt, and the East Indies, cannot be relied upon 
to meet the wants of the English manufacturers, says : 

"Onr liopes lie in a very different direction ; we look to our West 
Indian, African, and Australian colonies, as the quarters from which, 
would government only afford every possible facility, we might, ere 
long, draw such a supply of cotton, as would, to say the least, make 
the tluctuatii)ns of the American crop, and the varying proportions of 
it wiiich falls to our share, of far less consequence to our prosperity 
than thev now are." 

But we nmst hasten to a conclusion. Commercial connderations, 
of overwhelming i'orce, are impelling England to powerful efforts to 
secure to herself a certain and adequate supply of cotton. This 
she cannot obtain but in promoting its growth in other countries 
tlian those now producing it. 'ihe West Indies, in their present 
circumsiances — nor until the missionaries now laboring there succeed 
in elevating the people, and more equal laws prevail — cannot supply 
this demand, nor even then without an increase of population. There 
will, therefore, be only two fields remaining, Australia and Africa. 
Of the two, without entiring into detail, we must insist that Africa is 
the more promising, and success in it the more certain ; not only from 
the characier and abundance of its population, but because the moral 
forces will be exerted in behalf of Africa more fully than for Australia. 
'I'he reason is obvious : though Australia may be adapted to cotton, 
its cidtivalion there, and the civilization of its natives, cannot be made 
to act so directly and efficiently upon the slave trade, as the promotion 
of its growth will do in Africa. And, besides this important consid- 
eration, the populaiion of Australia, including emigrants and convicts 
transported thenc", is only 300,000 — a number too insignificant to 
aciromplisli much in coiton cultivation afier producing necessary arti- 
cles of subsistence. In the native population of Australia, " human 
nature wears its rudest form," and lliey are declared to be, both y;//?/- 
sirally and inlellectuallij, the most degraded of any savage tribes. 
Their numbers have been estimated at 100,000,* and it may safely be 
said, that it is useless to lake them into the account in estimating 
free labor agencies for tropical cultivation. It must be apparent, 
therefore, tiiat both the moral forces and commercial considerations, 
operating in England in behalf of an extended Cotton cultivation, 
must be directed to Africa, almost exclusively, and, in turning to 
Africa, must, necessarily, be concentrated upon Liberia as the great 
2enier of action. 

* Encyclopedia of Geograpliy, vol. 3, p. 127. 



ICS Present Jidations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 

Thus stands the Cotton quosiion in England. Her supply oi that 
article from the United States has renched its niaxiinuni, and from all 
otiier (juarters has been steadily diminisiiing ; placing her under the 
nccessitv of securing, from Liberia, the demands of lier incr<asing 
consumplion. In the production of Sugar and Cotfee in Africa, 
Great IJritain is not so deeply interested — iier chief supplies of these 
articles being obtained from iier colonies. But from moral and coui- 
mercial considerations she would prefer to substitute 146,000,000 
lbs. of Liberia Sugar for that amount of slave labor product now con- 
sumed by her; because she desires to discountenance slavery, and 
because freemen in Lil)eria will need more of her fabrics, in excliange, 
than liie Brazilinn planters will purchase for their half-naked slaves. 
^V'e may, therefore, rely upon England as the fast friend of Liberia 
and of African civilization. 

In the United States the moral forces have long been operating 
with great efficiency for African civilization. The commercial con- 
siderations are now also beginning to be felt with a good degree of 
power,* On this subject, however, we cannot at present enlarge, 
but must be content with calling special attention to one point. 

The great element in the United States, for the promotion of Afri- 
can civilization, consists in our industrious and intelligent free colored 
population. The facts presented in the present Lecture, with tlic 
inducements previously existing, should incline them to flock to Africa. 
In Liberia, the colored man has secured to him all the privileges of a 
freeman. There he can have schools and colleges for the education 
of his children, and enjoy civil and religious liberty. He can assist 
in the great work of African civilization, and aid in destroying the 
slave trade. He has there a fair field for the acquisition of wealth., 
and the enjoyments it secures. That these promises are not illusive, 
but will be fullillcd, is easily proved. Our investigations show, that 
the demand for an increased amount of Cotton, aflbrds a guaranty 
that the labor of the Libcrians would pay, if directed to its prodiu> 
tion. The increasing demand for Coffee cannot be supplied but hy 
its cultivation in Liberia, or by an increase of slaves in Brazil, and a" 
corresponding increase of the slave trade. The consumption of this 
article has increased in a ratio oi Jive per cent, per annum, 'J'he 
demand for 1850 is estimated at 630,000,000 los. The production 
of 18JU was only 426,000.000 lbs., and the slock of old Coflee on 
baud but 1.^1,000.000 lbs., leaving a deficit for the present year, 1850, 
of 70,000,00(1 Ihs.t Brazil now supplies over two-fflhs of the whole 
amount of Coflee consumed, and cultivates it at a cost onc-lhinl Ir: s 
tlian odier countries. But she caniu)t extend her cultivation at pres- 
ent, for want of slaves, an'l should Great Britain compel her to sus- 
])iMid the slave trade, which is probable, there must l)e a diminution 
of her production. Its cultivation in other countries, where it has 
been decliniug, cannot be revived for many years. | It is almost 

» See tlie Report of a Committee of Congress on llie cslablisliment of a line 
of Hlffim veHSflrt bcl\ve»n the United States and Liberia. 

t I! lint's M.'rcliiinl.s' ^bifTiizini-, Aug., l^fiO. jTl'id. 



Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 1G9 

rcrtnln, therefore, that, the production of CofTce witliin the present 
limits of its cultivation, can do no more than make up the deliciency 
)io\v existing, and keep up tlie sup])ly to the present demand of 630,- 
000,000 lbs. annually ; and it is more than probable that even this 
cannot be eflected, because, if the crop of 1850 only equals that of 
1849, the deficit for 1851 will be 200,000,000 lbs., being nearly 
equal to one-third the consumption. This, then, Avill leave at least 
the increasing demand of five per cent, per annum to be siipi)lied by 
Liberia ; and, behold, what a vast source of wealth even this one 
article opens up to the citizens of that Republic ! 

The following tabular statement, prepared at our request, by Mr. 
J. M. M. Wilson, a graduate of Miami University, presents at one 
view, the extent and value, during the next fifteen years, of this Jive 
per cent, ratio of annual increasing consumption of Coifee : 

Tabular Statement of the amount and value of Coffee which will be demanded by 
a ratio of increase of Jive per cent, per annum on the present consumption. 





Amount required. 


Annual increase. 


Increase over 


Value— Dollars, 


TEARS. 


lbs. 


lbs. 


1850. 


at 6 cts. per lb. 


1850, 


6.30,000,000 
661,500,000 








1851, 


'3i,500,66o' 


"31,500,000' 


$1,890,666* 


1852, 


694,575,000 


33,075,000 


64,575,000 


3,874,500 


l^a■^, 


729.303,750 


34,729,750 


99,303,750 


5,958,225 


1854, 


765,768.937 


36,465,185 


135,768,937 


8,146,136 


1855, 


804,057,384 


38,288,447 


174,057,.384 


10,443,443 


185G, 


844,260,252 


40,202,869 


214,260,253 


12,855,615 


1857, 


886,473,265 


42,213,013 


256,473,265 


15,388,395 


185S, 


930,786,928 


44,.323,663 


300,796,928 


18,04,7,815 


1S5'J, 


977,336,674 


46,539,746 


347,336,674 


20,840,200 


l!?(iO, 


1,026,503,508 


48,866,834 


399,203,508 


23,772,210 


1861, 


1,077,513,233 


51,310,175 


447,513,233 


26.850,793 


1862, 


1,131,388,895 


53,875,662 


501,388,895 


30,083,333 


1863, 


1,187,958,340 


56,569,445 


557,958,340 


33,477,500 


1864, 


1,247,356,257 


59,397,917 


617,356,257 


36,841,375 


1S65, 


1,309,724,070 


62^67,813 


679,724,070 


40,783,307 



We should not have introduced this table, but for its value in 
afibrding a true idea of the growing commercial importance of tlie 
cultivation of the lands of Liberia. It shows that the annual ratio 
of increase, aside from the large deficit in the supply of Coffee, is at 
this moment, worth nearly two millions of dollars, and that in fifteen 
years it will be worth o\er fortymillions ! J The increased demand 
for Cotton will be of nearly equal importance. To this must be 
added her sugar, indigo, dye-woods, palm oil, ivory, &c., Sic, and 
the new Republic assumes an importance, in the commercial world, 
only surpassed by the moral influence she is destined to exert over 
the whole continent. Indeed, her commercial progress already has 
been astonishing. Five or six years ago, her exports were about 
$100,000, but now they are $500,000, and rapidly increasing. Libe- 
rians comprehend the advantageous position they have secured, and 



170 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 

are eager to develop the resources of tlicir country. Their o;realr.st 
want is men. 'J'hey ajipeal to us for indusliious, intelhgeiit, onlcr- 
prising, upright emigrants, to aid them in unrulding to the world the 
long-hidden treasures of Africa, and to participate in the advanta<res 
that her riches will bestow. Are not colored men, in this country, 
able to comprehend the value of tliese resources ? Must we con- 
clude that they wdl remain indilferent, and reject tlie rich inherit- 
ance otTered in Liberia, and tell the world that they have le.'^s 
foresight, energy, and enterprise, than oilier races of men ? We 
oannot believe this. 

But the discussion of this proposition must be closed. Our Re- 
public occupies a very peculiar and important position. We have 
the agents necessary to elfect the moral regeneration of Africa ; and 
if tlu;y be treated as men, and liberal provision be made for emigra- 
tion, by the States and the General Government, our intelligent colored 
men will not shrink from duty. 

A crisis has arrived in the commercial world, in which there is an 
inadequate supply of two of the leading staples upon which slave 
labor is employed. Free and slave labor combined have failed to 
supply the consumption, and an increase of price has occurred sufii- 
cient to give a stimulus to their production. Tliis increased produc- 
tion must occur either in Brazil and Cuba, or free labor must be 
sulHciendy stimulated to meet the demand. But where and how is 
this to be accomplished ? There is little hope of its soon occurring 
in the East or West Indies. Already at one point in Liberia, nearly 
30,000 coHee trees are maturing, and will soon adbrd .SOO.OOO Iby. a 
year for export. There might, and would have been, had the peopl-e 
of the United States performed their duty, 700 such plantations in 
Liberia at this moment, ready to supply S200,000,000 lbs. of Coll ee 
annually. Had the growth of Lil)eria not been retarded by the nar- 
row policy that opposed Colonization, it requires little discernment 
to perceive, tliat this increasing demand nilLdit have been supplied bv 
the labor of the freemen of the African Kepulilic, instead of being 
left as a tempting prize, to be seized by the Brazilian planter and the 
African slave trader. 'J'he crisis jiow existing, therefore, demands 
the united exertions of all the friends of humanity, both at the North 
and the South, to push forward, with tbe utmost energy, the work of 
Colonization, as tlie only means of checking the extension of slavery 
and the slave trade. The wants of commerce demand, and must 
receive, an adequate supply of ColTee and Cotton, and we must 
cither secure that supply from Liberia, or sulniiit to see an increase 
of cruelly and oppression in Cuba and Brazil, 

We might greatly enlarge upon the extent to wliich moral forces 
and commercial eonsiilerations are pressing the English and American 
people to promote African civilization, through the agency of Jjiberia, 
but what has been said must sutlicc. 

\ II. Tiial all these agencies and influences being brought to bear 
upon the Civilization of Africa, from the nature of its soil, climate, 



Present Belatlons of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 171 

products, and population, we are forced to believe that a rniglity 
people will ultimately rise upon that continent, taking' rank with 
the most powerful nations of the earth, and vindicate the character 
of the A.frican race before the world. 

We cannot, at present, enter upon the discussion of this proposi- 
tion. It includes a field of great interest, which would be amply 
broad for a whole discourse. But we must leave it as an expression 
of our anticipation of the ultimate destiny of Africa, and close with 
a few remarks. 

Our last Lecture presented the African under the influence of de- 
grading superstition, and the brutalizing effects of the slave trade. 
The picture was dark indeed. In the present Lecture we had designed 
to present many evidences of his nobleness of character, when such 
debasing causes do not influence his actions. But we must defer 
them, and limit ourselves to a few points more closely connected with 
the subjects we have been discussing. 

It has been fashionable to charge upon the slaveholder equal crim- 
inality with the African kidnapper and slave trader, because the fore- 
fathers of the slaves held in bondage were originally brought from 
Africa. As our diploma does not bear date from Mount Lbal,^- and 
we are not trained to cursing; we shall be excused for speaking more 
calmly upon this point, and taking a more comprehensive view of its 
relations. Let the criminality of tlie slaveholder be what it may, it 
will be proper to examine the facts and ascertain whether others are 
not equally implicated in the guilt. Slaveholders are now producing, 
annually, more than eleven iiundred millions of pounds of Cotton, 
and more than twelve hundred and twenty millions of pounds of Su- 
gar, and nearly three hundred and forty millions of pounds of Coffee. 
Do they consume these articles themselves ? Are these products so 
polluted that the world will neither touch, taste, nor handle them ? 
Not at all. The great struggle everywhere is as to who shall obtain 
tlie greatest quantity of them, who make the greatest profit, and who 
derive most comfort from their consumption. This is especially 
true of London, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Paris, Vienna, 
Berlin, Brussels, Hamburgh, Stockholm, Amsterdam, and St. Pctcrs- 
burgli, as well as of Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Pittsburgh, 
and Cincinnati. The early abolitionists endeavored to prove, that 
the slaveliolder was equally guilty with the slave trader and kidnap- 
per, because the former received his slaves from the hands of the lat- 
ter; and that those who now hold in bondage the descendants of the 
stolen slaves, are equally guilty with the original kidnapper. Ac- 
cording to this logic, that " the fathers have eaten sour grapes and the 
children's teeth are set on edge," is a true proverb — and the men of 
the seventh generation, involved in an evil without their consent, by 
the actions of their forefathers, are equally guilty with its originators. 
If this be sound logic, then the manufacturer who buys slave grown 
Cotton, and makes it into cloth, is equally guilty with the slaveholder 

I * Dent. STTTs! " 



172 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 

himself who produces it. But tlie implication in fiuilt, if guilt there 
be, does not stop here. He who ])urchasps and wears tlie goods 
nuuuifaclured from slave grown cotton, is also implicated; and as 
there is annually consumed over eleven hundred millions of pounds 
of slave grown cotton, and barely seventy-eight millions of free labor 
growth, it follows that all Christendom is involved in the same con- 
demnation. These facts serve to illustrate one of our positions — 
that the Christian world cannot avoid consuming the products of 
slave labor, and thereby encourage slavery and the slave trade, but by 
civilizing Africa. 

There is one plan to avoid this great evil, and in an hour free our- 
selves from it, and that is to burn doivn all the cotton factories in 
Eurojje and America, and sufler none to be erected in their stead. 
But what would the world gain by the sacrifice? or rather, what 
would it lose? Conmierce, the great agent in the world's civiliza- 
l.on, would be destroyed. A check upon commerce is a check upon 
civilization. Human progress and human happiness materially de- 
pend upon commerce. But it is not practicable, even were it desi- 
rable, to destroy these factories to eradicate slavery. It is impossible 
to destroy them. The ;;fci<»ia?-?/ considerations involved are more 
powerful than the moral. The owners of these factories will con- 
tinue to manufacture slave grown cotton; commerce zi'i// continue to 
transmit the products of the looms to every corner of the world ; 
and the earth's population will continue to wear these fabrics. 'J'hc 
slave grown sugar and collee ivill also be consumed ; because a sup- 
])ly from free labor cannot be obtained. As it is impracticable, theu, 
to prevent the consuuiption of slave grown coflec, sugar, and cotton, 
on account of the pecuniary profit and personal comfort they aflbrd 
to mankind, so it is alike impossible to abolish slavery while the 
world continues to consume the products of its labor. Our own 
view, as expressed in the outset, is, that the whole Christian world 
is involved in this evil. Is there any more criminality in superin- 
tending [he production of slave grown cotton, than in overseeing its 
manufacture, or in being clothed with the iabrics into which it has 
been trausformcd ? Is the Louisiana or Cuban plautcr more crimiivil 
in raising, and sending to market, his crop of sugar, than the aboli- 
tionist of London or Boston is for sweetening his collVe, his tea, or 
his poundcake with the same article ? Is the Brazilian slaveholder 
iu(jre guilty for furnishing cofiee, by the labor of his slaves, than the 
merchant is for j)urcliasing and selling it to all the anti-slavery men 
in Ohio? Are they innocent for greedily drinking it, knowing it to 
be procured by the lash of the task-master? If coflee were not 
consumed, none would be raised. If sugar were not used, none 
would 1)0 made. If cotton were not manufactured and worn, none 
would be grown. Ilcncc slavery would be abolisiied ! U'ho then 
supports slavery and the slave trade, but the one who consumes 
its products? We leave these questions to every man's conscience. 
Ill the present crisis wc would approach our southern brethren in 
the language of the sons of Jacob, and say : " U'c arc verily guilty 



Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 173 

conocniing our brother, in that wc saw the anguish of his soul, wlien 
lie besouglit us, and we would not hear ; therefore is this distress 
2ome upon us ; " and in the spirit of christian liberality, propose 
some plan that would equalize the burden of relieving the country 
from tlie distracting evds of slavery. Capitalists at the south buy 
negroes because the investment is profitable, and they can no more 
be expected to emancipate their slaves, while their labor \s profitable, 
than northern men can be expected to burn their factories or banks 
with all their valuable contents. 

But what is tliere to prevent a change in this condition of things ? 
Must it remain forever? Must slavery, acknowledged on all hands, 
except by a very few, to be an evil, continue as a perpetual source 
of discord, endangering the safety of the Union, or affording a 
fruitful theme of excitement for fanatics and demagogues ? Men 
mav transfer their property, at pleasure, into cash, whether it be in 
lands, manufactories, or slaves. They are governed only by interest 
and inclination in such matters. Convince the slaveholder that he can 
do better than to invest his money in slaves, and he will not buy them. 
But when the investment is made, and you ask him to emaneipaie, 
without compensation, he considers it an unreasonable demand. 
Emancipation in the West Indies, he knows, has resulted in pecun- 
iary ruin to the master, and has increased slavery in the aggregate, 
instead of diminishing it. It is of tlie first importance, therefore, in 
the adoption of any emancipation schemes, that an adequate number 
of efficient free laborers should be secured to supply the place of the 
slaves. Unless this can be done with safety to the planter, he will 
not risk the change ; and unless the plan be such an one as will not 
create a fresh demand for slaves elsewhere, and produce an increase 
of the slave irade, humanity would forbid its adoption. Then devise 
a plan by which a productive free labor can be substituted for slave 
labor, and the master receive compensation for his slaves, and he 
would, no doubt, gladly free himself from tlie inconveniences and 
want of safety of his position. 

There are many reasons why such a change would be acceptable 
to the South. A feeling favorable to emancipation, independent of 
compensation, has long existed there, and legislative action has been 
deemed necessary to prevent too great an increase of free blades. 
The laws forbidding emancipation, except on condition of the 
removal of the freed man, have been approved by the friends of 
emancipation ; because the two leading objects they have in view, are, 
to better the condition of the slave, and to throw their own sons in a 
■ position of self-dependence, that would lead them to industry. To 
secure both these objects, demands the removal of the colored peo- 
ple. But as no efficient system exists in the slave Stales, for the 
encouragement of white labor, and as none can be adopted while the 
blacks remain, many of the enterprising whites, of small means, have 
yearlv emigrated to the free States. This has been most injurious to 
the slave Slates. Each white man, who emigrated, was a loss to 
them and a gain to the free States, 'i'housands upon thousands ol 



174 Present, lielations of Free Labor to Slave Laoor. 

ilio hp.U citizens of Oliio, Tncliunn, and Illinois, are from tlie slave 
States, and abandoned their former homes on account of their dislike 
to place their sons, as laborers, on an equality with slaves, and in the 
midst of the denioralizing influences that slavery generates. It is 
this tide of emigration which is so seriously checking southern pros- 
perity and keeping the numerical strength of the slave States so much 
below that of the free. But this dislike of freemen to labor on au 
equality with slaves, influences not only the southern while man of 
moderate means, but it prevents foreign emigrants from clioosing their 
houies in the "sunny south" instead of the chilly north. Neither 
can (mancipation, alone, check this tide of white emigration from 
the slave States, nor attract the foreign emigrant to them. I'he free 
colored people exert as paralyzing an eflfect upon industry th.ere, as 
the presence of the slaves ; and, to secure the objects aimed at, colo- 
nization must he connected icith emancipation. This effect of the 
presence of emancipated slaves, upon the industry of the whites, is 
not conflued alone to the United States. It has been a legitimate 
result of African slavery wherever it has existed. According to JMr. 
Bigelow, whose letters have been already quoted, it has been pecu- 
liarly the case in Jamaica. In summing up the causes which ha\e 
continued to depress the prosperity of that island, since emancipation, 
he places, first in the list, the dislike of the whites to labor with a 
people of servile origin, and the aptness of the blacks to adopt their 
iiile habits. His first cause of industrial depression is thus stated : 

" 1. The degradation of labor, in consequence of the yet compar- 
atively recent existence of negro slavery upon tlie Island, which 
excludes the white population from almost every department of pro- 
ductive industry, and begets a public opinion calculated to discourage, 
ratlier than promote industry among the colored population." 

Mr. Bigelow is of the opinion that the English Government takes 
this view of the subject ; and, with the design of correcting the evils 
and restoring the prosperity of the Island, is contem]ilating the with- 
drawal of the white population, anti allowing tlie colored people to 
become tlie proprietors of the soil. Now, if it be so, that the pros- 
perity of the AVcst India Islands demands a separation of the races, 
where it is the boast that so little prejudice against color exists, how 
much more imperiously is the separation of the blacks and wliiles 
demanded in this country, where prejudice against color is supposed 
to be so much stronger; but which, in fact, may be called by another 
name, because it is founded, not so much in relation to color as to 
the habits engendered by slavery, and to which, color is supposed 
to be a certain index, as it reveals the servile origin of its possessor. 
Colonization is the true remedy, to the colored people, for this social 
evil, as it is also the true means of stimulating the industry of tiie 
whites where slavery has existed. 

I'ut there is another depressing cause, weighing down the colored 
man, for which ('olonizalion is the only remedy. While he remains 
among lliose to whom he, or his fathers, were formerly in bondnge, 
his p«'esencc not oidy continues to degrade labor, and prevent industry 



Present Relations of Free ]Aihor to Slave Labor. 175 

among the whites, but he continues to feel a sense of inferiority tliat 
retards improvement. Tiie remedy for this, is his removal from the 
scenes that remind him of his former servile condition, and especially 
his separation from tlie race which held him in bondage. This opinion 
of the unfavorable condition in which the colored people are placed, 
is becoming general. It is a great truth, which is fast forcing itself 
upon minds that hitherto would not admit it for a moment. Even the 
National Era, the Abolition organ, has been led to embrace views 
ecirresponding so closely with this as to be its equivalent. In an 
article headed " Free Labor versus Slave Labor," the editor expresses 
tlie opinion, that emancipation in the United States would lead to the 
concentration of the colored people in the South, and the displace- 
ment of the laboring whites, and produce beneficial results. He 
says : 

" The aggregation of the negroes would necessarily build up a 
public opinion of their own, a feeling of nationality, which is es- 
sential to the development of character. This they never can have 
while dispersed over so wide an extent of country, among an 
unfriendly people, who trample on their rights and treat them as 
outcasts."* 

It will be apparent, on slight examination, that the aggregation of 
the colored people and the displacement of the whites, must be a 
very different thing in the United States from what it would be in 
Jamaica. The removal of 16,000 whites, (about 3,000 families,) in 
that Island, from a colored population of nearly 400,000 persons, 
will be a trifling task compared with the rooting out of the immense 
white population of one-third of the States of this Union ! The 
former is practicable, the latter impossible ; and the sooner it is dis- 
missed from any part of the public mind the better. The truth is, 
that the only hope of placing the colored people of the United States 
beyond the influence of those " who trample on their rights and treat 
them as outcasts," and where there would necessarily grow up " a 
public opinion of their own, a feeling of nationality, ivhich is es- 
sential to the develojmient of character,'^ is not to retain them as 
free laborers in the service of the southern planter, as the Era's 
scheme contemplates, but to afford them the means of reaching Libe- 
ria, where they may, themselves, be the landed proprietors in a 
Republic of their own, instead of remaining here as serfs in the land 
of their former bondage. These are the different destinies that Colo- 
nization and Abolition have in store for the African race. 

But can such a substitution of free labor for slave labor, as we 
have contemplated, be made with equal profit to the southern cap- 
italist? Can there be found a sufficient number of freemen, to 
replace the slaves, so that there shall be no diminution of products 
to serve as a fresh stimulus to slavery and the slave trade elsewhere? 
Will southern men, in such circumstances, be willing to emancipate, 
on condition of receiving compensation? Could the States and the 

* National Era, May 16, 1850. 



170 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 

General Governmeni provide for ihe expenses of the emigration of all 
the colored people ? 

These are the great questions of the day in reference to the whole 
subject of emancipation. AVe shall not undertake, formally, to ans- 
Aver them. Colonies of foreigners, recently setded in Texas, have 
commenced the cultivation of cotton widiout the aid of slaves. The 
agent of tlie "Free Produce Society," Levi Coffin, of Cincinnati, 
assures us that these colonists, together with many other persons 
thus engaged in cotton raising at the South, find it a profitable busi- 
ness, and that they can fully compete with their neiglibors who em- 
ploy slave labor. From personal observation, we are prepared to 
say, that the value of the proceeds of small farms, on which but 
few laborers are employed, is twice as great in the North as in the 
South. We have less acquaintance witii the operations of the large 
planters at the South, but suppose that the contractors on our public 
works at the North, who employ an equal number of hands, and 
possess equal business talents, after paying full wages, realize the 
greatest profits. We mean to be understood as claiming, that free 
labor, under the most favoring circumstances, is twice as productive 
as slave labor ; and that the southern planters, in substituting an intel- 
ligent W'hite laboring population, and paying full wages, would realize 
a belter profit than they do under tlieir present system. With a few 
years' experience, the foreigner is as profitable a laborer as the native 
American. The present annual influx of near a lialf a million of 
foreigners, into the country, would furnish many laborers to the 
South, were the objections to settling there removed. The adoption, 
by the General Government, of a system of emancipation, allowing 
compensation for the slaves, and connecting u.ilh it their coloniza- 
tion in Liberia, would at once attract foreigners to the soiuhern 
States, to an extent fully equal to the number of colored people that 
could annually be safely settled in Africa. Tlie number of emi- 
grants that can be provided for in Liberia, will be an hundred per 
cent, greater, in proportion to its population, than can be received in 
countries where protection has to be made against winter. \n a few 
years that Republic can be prepared to receive an immense emigra- 
tion. The opening of tlie South to free labor, would give a vast 
stimulus to the spirit of emigration in European countries, and bring 
a flood of useful emigrants from their teeming populations ; inchuHng 
mechanics, manufacturers, and agricultural laborers, which might 
equal, as soon as desiraljle, the whole number of our slaves, and 
constitute a body of operatives much more profitable. Europe, at 
present, is annually jiouriug out more than a half a million of her 
people, without feeling any sensible diminution ; nay, without losing 
a tiilie of iier increase. The greater part of that emigration is to the 
United States; and as there is not such an attractive field furnislied 
in tlie world, to foreign emigrants, as our southern States afl'ord, were 
a system adijptcd for the emigration of the African j^opulation, we 
woulil receive a greatly increased number of Europeans. How long 
it would lake for three millions of foreign emigrants to fimi their way 



Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 177 

nto llie Soutli, to take the place of the three millions of slaves, we 
cannot say ; but there exists little doubt that their ingress would he 
as rapid as die colored people could possibly leave for Liberia. 

It is duis that free labor might be substituted for slave labor, and 
the slaveholder be rendered more prosperous and happy. The res- 
toration to tiie planter, by the General Government, of his capital 
invested in slaves, and the introduction of a system of free labor 
which would require a much less ouday of money than the present 
system, would, doubtless, be approved at the South, and a proposition 
of this kind be accepted by acclamation. 

Gentlemrn of the Constitutional Convention: 

In closing, we must call your attendon to the question of making 
provision for the emigration of the colored people of Ohio, or for 
such of them as may, from time to time, desire to remove to Liberia. 
Tiie late purchase of territory for a new colony, by Charles 
McMicKEN, Esq., to be called Ohio in Africa, is attracting the atten- 
tion of the colored people, and considerable anxiety prevails to obtain 
reliable information about Liberia, and especially in relation to the 
lands now offered to them as their future homes. The general feel- 
ing among those who take an interest in this movement, is, that a 
committee of their own choosing, which should be approved by the 
agent of the Colonization Society, shall be sent to explore the country, 
'i'his seems a reasonable request, and should be complied with. 
The Colonization Society have in their offer a larger number of 
slaves than they can colonize, and we cannot ask that its funds shall be 
diverted Irom so sacred an object as securing their freedom. The as- 
sistance for our colored people must come from the State itself. But 
the voluntary contributions of individuals are insufficient for this 
purpose, and too precarious to be relied upon. Public sympathy, 
throughout the Union, cannot be aroused in behalf of the free col- 
ored people, as it can for the slave, so as to make their removal a 
national question. And yet their agency, as pioneers to aid the 
Liberians in making provision for new emigrants, is essential to the 
success of any great national emancipation scheme. The cost of 
emigration of the free colored people must, then, be borne by the 
States in which they reside. This view has already been adopted 
by some of the States. Maryland has estabhshed a colony at Cape 
Palmas, upon which she has expended a large sum. Its prosperity 
amply repays her liberality. Virginia, last winter, also made a large 
appropriation, ($30,000 a year,) to colonize her free colored people. 
But in addition to tins, she has levied a poll tax upon them, which 
will, doubdess, lessen the task she has undertaken, by driving over 
upon the adjoining free States, all those who do not wish to emigrate. 
Oiuo has done nothing yet for colonization. Her recent legislation 
has all been directed so as to invite the largest emigration of colored 
people from abroad.* 

*See first Part, pages 19 to 26. 

12 



178 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 

Takir.2 M tho circumstances connected -witli the sii1)ject iiitoA'iew, 
it is evident that the means of promoting the cause of Colonization 
in Oiiio, iimst be obtained williin the Slate, and that an appHcalion to 
the Legishiturc for aid will be necessary. It is all important, then, 
that the question of legislative power to appropriate money for this 
oliject, be put bevond all dispute. To bring the question of alfording 
aid to Colonization directly liefore the people, for their approval, it is 
respectfully requested on behalf of the friends of that cause, and on 
belialf of the colored people who wish to emigrate, that you, gentle- 
men, in the discharge of your duties, as members of the Constitu- 
tional Convention, will insert a clause in the new Constituti(ui, 
empowering the Legislature to grant an appropriation of money to 
the American Colonization Society, under such restrictions as will 
best promote the noble enterprise in whicii it is engaged, and encour- 
age tlie emigration of the colored peojile from this State to Iiib(;ria. 

There is certainly much, at this moment, gentlemen, to excite en- 
coura!jin<>' hopes for the colored race, and to stimulate their friends to 
forget all minor diiferences, and press onward to tlie accomplisliinent 
of the grand results n«w evidently attainable through Colonization. 
Nor are we left without hope, that our own beloved country may yet 
be freed from the reproach of African slavery, whicli has been en- 
tailed upon her by the cupidity of the mother country. 'J'ake a viev.-, 
for a moment, of the signs of the times, and the present position of 
affairs. The despotisms of Europe are being shaken to their centers. 
'J'lie crowned heads seem to have gained a momentary res|)ile. The 
want of safely in property and life in the old world is greatly stimu- 
lating emigration to the new. Here, only, can white men enjoy all 
the rights of freemen, and be brought under the influence of all the 
elements of useful human progress.* The recent vast enlargement 
of our territory, may have been permitted to alFord room for the op- 
pressed millinns of Europe, who are sighing lor peace and for freedom. 
Our national councils have been directed to a peaceful adjustment of 
the questions threatening the safety of tlie Union. The opening up 
(if the untold riches of California is placing in the possession of tlie 
nation the means of accomplishing great things for the W(ndd. 'I'his 
most singular coml)ination of events, points very siirnificantly to the 
great work devolving upon the nation. 7y su/isti/ufe free labor for 
.slave labor is in our poivcr. To f^ire compensation to the rnaatir 
for liii alavrs will )iol be beyond our aliilitt/. 'J'he foreign emigrants 
pourinir into the country will perform the first great work. The 
immense revenues that will liereatter How into our national treasury 
will enable us to executt^ the last. Is it donlited ? 'I'he appropriation 
ol' an annual sum only equal to half the amount expended in the 
Mexican War, would, in seventeen years, colonize all the slaves, and 
pay to the masters SIJOO eacli, for young and old, as compensation. 
To substitute free labor for slave labor need produce no commercial 
derangement with us that would encourage the slave trade or slavery 

*Sco Tart Sccoml, pngo 113. 



Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 1T9 

elscwliero. There need be no diminution of products, hut tlie im- 
proved tillage would yield an increase. Enghuid and France, wher 
freeing the slaves in their Colonies, founil no such tide of intelligeni, 
foreigners as we are receiving, flowing into them, to take the place of 
dieir slaves, and prevent a decrease of agricultural products. We 
can do what no other nation would be capable of doing. It is in our 
power not only to free ourselves from the evil of slavery, and the 
whole world from the necessity of consuming slave-grown products ; 
but, in the execution of this great work, to hasten the redemption of 
Africa from barbarism ; and, in doing this, to crush the slave trade 
and slavery everywhere, and establisli our own glorious republic upon 
a huindation as enduring as the everlasting hills. No one, we thiidc, 
can calmly examine the present relations of free labor to slave labor, 
in tropical and semi-tropical countries, as embodied in the mass of 
focts we have collated, and not be convinced that Emancipation in the 
United States, and the Colonization of the colored people in Liberia, 
to develop its resources and civilize its inhabitants, would give a 
death-blow to the slavery of Cuba and Brazil, and to African oppression 
throughout the world. And who would not be delighted to aid in 
such a glorious work? Who would not be overjoyed to witness 
such a sublime achievement of Republican principle? Who would 
not devoutly adore that Divine Wisdom which had wrought out such 
deliverance for Africa. 

And now, gentlemen, we commit this subject into your hands. 
The tirst step, in the agency which Ohio should have in this great 
work, must be taken by you. Our lands for the Colony of Ohio in 
Africa, are included in the Gallinas, hitherto the greatest mart of the 
slave trade on that coast. To secure its purchase, Great Britain, with 
profuse liberality, for more than a year, blockaded all its principal 
trading points and thus kept off the slave traders until the chiefs and 
kings were induced to sell. That blockade is now raised — the pur- 
chase having been made. The country is once more exposed to the 
approaches of the slave traders, who may again succeed in renewing 
the traffic. This can only be prevented by the settlement of the 
points liable to be visited by them. This territory being in the offer 
of the colored people of Ohio, will for a time, not be offered to odiers. 
It is important, therefore, that decisive steps be taken to secure the 
executiim of Uie enterprise of establishing an Ohio Colony in Africa. 
The failure of an application to the Legislature, last winter, for aid 
to begin this work, was, in some degree, owing to an opinion held 
by a few of the members, that they had not constitutional power to 
appropriate money for this object. Our appeal, then, must first be to 
you. The failure to confer upon the Legislature the power for which 
we ask, will leave us in doubt and perplexity, and cast a blight upon 
our prospects. But the insertion of a clause in the Constitution, such 
as is desired, will ensure Legislative action, and may lead the Slcite 
to adopt and cherish this offspring of benevolence — Ohio in Africa 
— and thus create a new and efficient agent for the overthrow of 
oppression and the promotion of human liberty. We commend it to 
your care, and to die blessing of the Ruler of Nations. 



P A H T F U 11 T li . 



It is a (licttite of prudence, in all human pursuits, to pause, at timeg, 
anil review tlie past, that tvc may ascertain whether our effiirts Lave 
been successful, or whether a change of policy may not be demanded to 
accomplish our purposes. The moi-e important the interests involved, 
tlie gieater is the necessity for the adoption of this rule. Let us apply 
it to the efforts which have been made in belialf of the oppressed people 
of Africa. Except tlie propagation of tlie Gospel, few benevolent enter 
prises have enlisted so many hearts as those for the destruction of the 
African slave trade and the abolition of slavery ; and, in none have the 
active agents been so often foiled, and doomed to see their brightest 
hopes decay and almost die, as in these twin offsprings of benevolence. 

An impression has gone abroad, of late, among a certain class, that 
much progress has been made in overturning the system of slavery ; and, 
that, in a little time, the task will be done, and tlie oppressed go free. 
It is proposed, in the space of a few pages, to notice the more prominent 
events connected with the subject, with the view of sliowing fliat tliis 
belief is not warranted by the facts in the case; and that tlie Anti- 
Slavery policy, so far as it has opposed Colonization to Africa, has re- 
tarded emancipation, by checking the extension of free labor tropical 
cultivation, and thus rendered slave la])or more and more necessary, 
and more and more profitalile, in the cultivation of those tropical jiroducts 
which the constantly increasing wants of commerce now so iiiiperidusly 
di'man<l. 

In performing this task, we shall direct attention to the enormous in- 
dclitedness of the Christian world to slave labor, at this moment, for 
certain articles of prime necessity ; then show (lie inability of free lal)or, 
in tropical and semi-tropical countries, to compete with the slave labor 
(if those regions so as to aff>rd any relief: present facts to prove, that 
the tendency of the effiirts of Great Britain, in liehalf of the African 
race, up to a recent date, has been to increase the evils she was attempt- 
ing to destroy ; offer some considerations which make it probal)le, that 
the suppression of tlie African slave trade, an event now considered ccr- 
(ISO) 



Farf}^ for TJtmh'rKj Mm. 181 

lain, will bo of immense pcouniary l)onefit to the slave lioldors of the 
United States; and, in concluding, demonstrate that the only hope for 
any great increase of free labor tropical cultivation, at an early day, is 
in Africa, and that the main prospect of making it available there, is liy 
colonization to Liberia. 

x\s the field of investigation is an extensive one, we must study great 
brevity ; and, to I'ender our labors less complicated, we shall refer to 
three articles of slave labor product, only, viz. : Cofice, Sugar, and 
Cotton. Fii-st, then, as to the indebtedness of the Christian world to 
slave labor. 

According to ofEcial documents, and other reliable sources of infonna- 
tion, the consumption of Cotton in Europe and the United States for 
1849,* was 1,179,920,000 lbs. Of this amount, only 78,589,200 
lbs. were the product of free labor countries, leaving the Christian world 
indebted to slave labor, for this article of prime necessity, to the extent 
of 1,101,330,800 lbs. 

Of this amount England consumed 024,000,000 lbs., of which only 
71,409,200 lbs. were from free labor countries, leaving her indebted to 
slave labor countries for 552,530,800 lbs. of Cotton. The amount of 
this article consumed by Great Britain, being more than one half of the 
whole consumption of the Christian world, shows that she is the greatest 
pi'op to slavery in the world. Her patronage to the slave holders of the 
United States, alone, for 1849, was, for Cotton, 734,244,560 lbs., of 
which she manufactured 522,530,800 lbs. and exported the remainder 
to the Continent. 

But why is this ? we may be asked. Wliy is it that England, after 
making such immense sacrifices for the overthrow of slavery in her own 
dominions, should be the principal purchaser of the products of the 
slave labor of a rival nation? We answer, that her greatness and 
power, the ability to meet the payment of the interest upon her na- 
tional debt and to sustain the throne itself, is dependent upon her com- 
merce ; and that her commerce is based upon her exports of manufac- 
tures. These exports stood as follows, for the year 1849, and that 
year will serve as the index to other yeai'S : 

Silks Exported, $5,001,785 

Woolen Goods, Exported, 42,096,650 

Linen " " 20,517,215 $67,615,650 

Cotton " " $139,453,970 

It will be seen, therefore, that Cotton is indispensable to Great Britain, 
and that to cut off her siipply of that article, woidd be to destroy nearly 
two thu-ds of her commerce, manufactures of Iron excepted. 

The United States is also dependent upon Cotton, to a large extent, 
as the basis of her foreign commerce, not only as it respects the raw 
material, but in the manufactured article. 



* This Tract is a condensed enumeration of the facts embraced in the pamphlet addressed to 
the Oliio Constitutional Convention, in ISjjO, on '• the present relations of free labor to slavo 
labor,'' and tlicir bearinij; on African Colonization. The authorities, for the facts stated, are all 
piren in tliat (locuuient, and are to b(> rolicil upon as correct, both there and here. The suppres- 
sif n of the slave trade, theu in antici|i:ition. has now been nearly realized, and the arguments 
based upon this event will be found worth considericg. 



1S2 Facts for Tliinkhrfj Me 

To lindorstancl tlie full indebtedness of iL-. Oar.atu.i '" /av'o 

labor and to free labor, respectively, at this moment, the following figures 
must be given : 

CONSUMPTION OF COTTON, SUGAR, AND COFFEE, IN 1849. 

Slave Labor. Free I^bor. Slave Labor Excess. 

Cotton, lbs. 1,101,330,800 78,589,200 1,022,741,000 

Sui^ar, " 1,220,000,000 933,024,000 28(3,97;'), 000 

Coffee, " 338,240,000 217,800,000 120,440,000 

Tlicse figures show the relation in whicli the Christian world stood, to 
these two systems of labor, in 1849, and that relation has not sinoo 
undergone any material change. Nor is there any practicable mode of 
immediately altering tliis relation, now apparent to the eye of the 
Christian pliilanthropist. Much dependence has hitherto been placed 
on the apjdication of moral suasion, for the removal of slavery from our 
country. But the demands of commerce now far outweigli the moral 
forces operating against that institution, and it must continue, as far 
as man can judge, until a change in the sources of supply, of the com- 
modities upon wliich slave Ldjor is employed, can be accomplished. 

But there is no prospect of such a change being effected in tho 
countries now producing these commodities. Their production Ity slave 
labor has been rapidly increasing for many years, while that by free 
labor has been as regularly decreasing, so that no material cliange is to 
be expected very soon. The truth of this assertion will be evident wlien 
it is stilted, that the forces employed within the western hemisphere, in 
the cultivation of Coffee, Sugar, and Cotton, for export, stand about 
thus : * 

Slave population 6,C)ri7,000 

Free colored population 1,057,000 

The latter class, standing only as one to six, cannot, by any possiliil- 
ity, compete with the former, and no revolution in the supplies of tho 
cnnunndilies named, is to be expected from that quarter. 

In cnnfiriiiation of this view, it is only necessary to say, that wliilc 
tlic shive ti-ade supplied the English AVest India planters and tliose of 
llayti with lalxirers, tlie exports in a single year, of the articles unTter 
consideration, from tliese Ishmds — the latter in 1790 and the former in 
1S07 — amounted to 92S,000,000 lbs. ; while under freedom, from 1S38 
to 1S4S, tlieir exports averaged, annually, only 35(),O00,O00 lbs., — 
l)eing a decrea.«e of 572, 000, 000 lbs. As there was, during tho i)erind.s 
named, no diminution in tlie consumption of these articles, but a steady 
increa.'^e, this falling (iff in the amount of free labor products operated 
as a great stimulus to the slave holder, and also to the slave trader. Is 
this donbtiMl V Then look at a few facts connected with this subject. 

V/licn Kiigl.iiid |irohibited the slave trade to her citizens, and tluis cut 
off the sujiply of laborers to her West India planters, in 1808, the ex- 

• Tills Jow not Include llic frwt rnlorcd people of the United State.", nor tho one million of cl.nres 
Jn lliiK rountry, wlio re.-'ide norlli of the ("oiton and Sugar line. I'ho whole number of AIrJ<yi.u 
£lavcs iu the \icsteru Utuiihi'Uvru \i about 7,000,000. 



Facts for Thuihinfj Men. 183 

ports of slaves from Africa, were but 85,000 annually ; Imt, in.'^fead of 
l)cin<;' diniinishod by that act, that bloody traffic went on increa.sin"', 
until, in 1880, it had reached an averao;c of 125,000 annually. In 
1833, the Emancipation Act was passed by l*arliament, and it was fol- 
lowed by a still farther increase of the slave trade, running; up the ex- 
ports of slaves from Africa, between 1835 and 1840, to 135,N00 per 
annum. 

But why this result? Cuba, Brazil, and the French West India 
Colonies, continued to purchase imported slaves, that they might extend 
their cultivation, and reap all the advantages of the decreased produc- 
tion, under free labor, in Hayti, and the British West India possessions 

To give a clear idea of the rapidity with which the demand for these 
products has increased, one instance only need be given, whicli will 
serve as an index to the whole. In 1805, the English consumption of 
Cotton was but GO, 000, 000 lbs. In 1833 it was 287,000,000 lbs., 
and in 1845 it had risen to 626,000,000 lbs. But in 1849 it was 
reduced to 624,000,000 lbs. To this fact we shall recur again, at 
present merely stating, that as the cultivation of Coffee, Sugar, and 
Cotton, went down in Hayti and the British West Indies, it went up in 
the countries employing slave labor. 

Being in the possession of such facts as these, a just conception can be 
formed of the present indebtedness of the Christian world to slave labc^ 
and the character of the obstacles in the way of effecting any immedij 
change in that relation. In the article of Cotton, alone, the excess of 
the consumption of the products of slave labor over free labor, is more 
than one thousand millions of pounds ; and, in all three of the products 
named, it is ovev fourteen hundred and thirty millions of pounds. 

Attention must now be directed to another aspect of this subject, and 
one that is indispensable to the proper understanding of the present 
posture of slave labor. 

It had become apparent, at the close of 1849, that slave labor, and 
free labor, both combined, were about to fail in producing an adequate 
supply of Cotton and Coffee, to meet the demand for these commodities; 
and, as a necessary consequence, the prices of both advanced, largely, 
beyond what they had been for years. It was also known, that ex- 
cept so far as more favorable seasons might afford larger crops, occa- 
sionally, no increased ratio of production was to be expected in the 
countries engaged in the cultivation of these articles ; and that their 
consumption had been increasing in a greater ratio than their production, 
so that a short supply must become permanent, unless additional laborers, 
in other countries, not now producing them, could be induced to engage 
in theli- cultivation. 

There was one mode, indeed, by which an increased producti(.(n of 
these commodities might have been secured, in the present producing 
countries ; and that was by an unlimited and untrammelcd increase of 
the slave trade, adding, annually, two or three hundred thousand slaves 
to the plantations of Brazil, Cuba, and other slave labor countries. 
And such was the pressing necessity for an increased supply of Cotton 
in England, in 1850, that this course of policy was very nearly adopted. 
The philanthropists, despairing, at that moment, of the suppression of 
the slave trade, and anxious to relieve it of the horrors induced by the 



1^^ Fads for Tlnuklixj Mph. 

fear of capture on the part of the traders ; and, moreover, being mostly 
'■ peace men," and opposed to tlic shedding of blood ; had commenced 
to urge the withdrawal of the naval squadrons from the African coast, 
so as to leave the traffic in slaves once more unmolested, that it might 
be ])rosecuted with care and deliberation and less loss of human life. 
During 1850 and each of the four preceding years, Brazil received from 
Africa, from 50.000 to 60,000 slaves for the supply of her planters, 
notwithstanding the efforts of the squatbons to prevent it. But, as the 
Tnortality of her slaves is ten per cent, per annum, she needed 200,000 
at least, to keep pace with the demands which commerce was making 
upon her for slave grown products. The English Cotton lords, foresee- 
ing, doubtless, that the movement would at once double the supply of 
laborers to Brazil, and increase her ability to export Cotton, readily 
united with the philanthropists, and, in the name of humanity, demanded 
that the government should withdraw its African squadron. Tlie adop- 
tion of this measure by Parliament, would have given to the slave 
trader an uninterrupted field for renewing his horrid traffic in human 
flesh. But Lord John Russell brouglit the whole weight of his influence 
against it, as Premier, and refused any longer to have the action of 
goveriniient controlled by men who had proved themselves, througliout 
the anti-slavery movement, as ignorant of the principles of political 
cconomv, as they were erroneous in their notions of human nature. 

To afUml a true idea of the embarrassments under which the English 
manufacturers lalior, in reference to a supply of Cotton to keep their 
lo(mis in motion, it is only necessary to state : that from 1830 to 18-45, 
omitting 18'-57 and 1841, the increase in the consumption of Cotton in 
England, averaged, annually, ncarlv 35,000.000 lbs. The whole con- 
sumption, in 1830, was 247,000,000 lbs. and in 1845 it had risen as 
before stated, to 626,496,000 lbs. But in 1845 her consumption of 
Cotton had reached its maximum, and she has not since maimiactured 
so large a cjuantity, in any one year, by two or three millions of pounds. 
The reason of this is fully explained in the London Economist and other 
British periodicals. Her sujtjdies of Cotton from all other countries, 
except the United States, had been diminishing for many years, save 
when excessively high prices diverted a larger ])ortion from India to 
I'jugland. The ratio of increase in the production of Cotton, in the 
United States, has been only about three per cent, per annum, or nearly 
cipial to the natural increase of her slave population. Beyond this ratio 
of increa.sc, the production of Cotton in the United States cannot extend, 
excepting so far as new and ri<-her lands arc obtained and cultivated ; 
and, even then, an incrca.<e from this cause cannot be permanent, as 
much nf the Cotton lands of the South have been worn out and aban- 
(IoikmI, and much more mu.^t share the same fate. The ratio of increa.'-o 
in the production of Cotton, in the United States, cannot, therefore, rise 
pf'i-iiKUicntly much iH'yoiid three per cent, per amnun. 

-Now, we wish it noted, ])articularly, that the ratio of increase in the 
manufacture of (!otton, in the United States and the continent of Eu- 
ropi', eipials this three per cent, jier annum, and takes uj) the whole 
ini rea.«c(l j)roduction of (he United States. Owing to the di.-lurbancc.H 
in Europe, of a political nature, the manufactui'ing interests on the coji- 



Fads for ThhiUmj Men. 185 

linont have been scmewhiit deranged, but at the opening of 1850, the 
condition of this question was as we have stated. 

Engdand, then, has been left without the means of procuring a suffi- 
cient supply of Cotton for her manufactories ; and has been driven to 
extraordinary efforts, for some years past, to remedy this evil. These 
efforts need not be noticed in detail : they were begun in India, extended 
to Australia, to South Africa, and last of all to Liberia. The results of 
these attempts have been rather discouraging, generally, and, in some 
instances, total failures, except in Liberia ; where the soil, climate, and 
population, afford hopes of complete success, when the new I'epublic 
shall have sufficient capital to employ the native labor within its borders. 

And here we may be allowed to remark, that it does not appear to 
be so mucli from a dislike to the use of the slave grown Cotton of Brazil 
and the United States, that England is seeking supplies from other 
countries, as because she cannot obtain enough of it to meet her wants. 
After using 552,500,000 lbs. of slave grown cotton annually, and but 
71,469,000 lbs. of free labor origin, it need not be claimed that the 
Cott&n lords of England have any scruples of conscience on that score. 

But we must advert to another aspect of tliis great question. 

When a skillful general has to contend with a powerful foe, he never 
rushes recklessly on to the contest, i-elying for victory upon mere bravery ; 
but surveys the enemy's movements and position with care, aims at 
discovering his plans, and then attacks the posts of most vital importance 
to his adversary. It cannot, justly, be claimed that the English anti- 
slavery efforts have been conducted upon this principle ; but it can bo 
shown that the slave trader, and those mterested in sustaining his unholy 
traffic, have acted upon it, and, until very recently, have gained strength 
and superior advantages from every movement made for the suppression 
of that traffic. 

It can also be shown that the signal failure of West India free labor, 
so unexpected to the emancipationists, and so destructive to the West 
India planters, was, in a good degree, the legitimate result of the slave 
trade. Look at the facts. The constant and cheap supply of slaves to 
the planters of Cuba, enabled them to produce Sugar at £12 the ton; 
while in the English West Indies, under freedom, the planters have been 
unable to produce it for less than £20 the ton, though paying the free 
laborer but 18f to 25 cents per day, as wages, the workman boarding 
himself. Such wages being insufficient to allure the freeman to the toils 
of the sugar mills, or to induce him to allow his wife or daughters to go 
there, except from necessity, the planters, unable to pay more, at the 
prices their Sugar bore in market, could not compete with the Cuban 
slave holders, and had to abandon their estates. It was thus that the 
slave trade crippled English West India cultivation, and rendered it 
wholly powerless as a competitor to slave labor ; and it was thus, again, 
that slavery was made to react so as to sustain the slave trade. 

The same remarks will apply to the cultivation of Coffee, and the same 
results, nearly, have followed, in all cases, where either manumitted 
free labor, or Pagan free labor have come into competition with African 
slave labor, in the production of the commodities which we have been 
considering. Here are the fiicts : 



18G Facts for Thinking 3Icn. 

1832, only 04,080,000 lbs. of Coffee; but after the English emancipa. 
tion uf 18;>3, the enormous importation of slaves into the former eoun 
tries, enabled them to run up their ])ro(luction so as to export, in 1848,,! 
the immense quantity of ol;>,GOO,000 lbs. of this article. See the enor--j 
mous power of the slave trade I In 1() years it enabled these countries < 
U) increase their coffee exports from 94,080,000 lbs. to 813,600,000 ll)s.! 

On the other hand, Ilayti, the British West Indies, Ceylon, Mocha, 
and India, all free labor countries, exported less in 1848, by 0,000,000 1 
lbs., tlian they had done in 1832. 

Java and Sumatra, also free labor countries, though increasinii; their 
eyports of Coffee from 00,480,000 lbs., in 1832, to 156,800,000 lbs. 
in 1843; yet, owing to the extreme low prices, in the following years, 
arising from the heavy supplies from Brazil, they allowed their exports 
to fair off, in 1848, 12,400,000 lbs. below what it was in 1843. 

Cuba, employing slave labor, diminished her coffee exports, it is true, 
from 49,280,000 lbs., in 1882, to 22,400,000 lbs. in 1848; but it wasi 
only to increase her sugar exports from about 100,000,000 lbs. to near 
(•00,000,000 lbs. per annum, and to give the death blow to its produc- 
tion, by free labor, in the British West Indies. 

Here, now, without further details, are facts enough to enable tliink- 
ing men to discern how far the failure of free labor tropical cultivation 
is due to the slave trade ; and to convince them tliat not only in Sugar 
and Coffee, throughout the whole field of their production, but in Cotton, 
too, has manumitted free labor, as well as pagan free labor, failed to 
sustain itself in competition with African slave labor; and that tlie slave 
trade has embarrassed, discouraged, and almost ruined free labor tropi- 
cal cultivation. 

But let us look a little more closely at the position into which tliis 
tremendous agent of evil, the slave trade, has thrown the Christian world. 
By introducing a savage population into new and rising Christian States, 
where labor was much in demand, it has checked the progress of civiliza- 
tion, and entailed evils that the wisdom of man is unable to remove. 
By multiplying at will the number of slaves in the world, it has east a 
blight \\\)v>n free labor within the tropics. By rapidly augmenting the 
supplies of slave labor products, at cheap rates, it has driven those of 
free labor from the markets, except at ruinous prices, and thus has it 
successfully })aralyzed the arm of the freeman. By securing to slave 
labor the monopoly of the markets for its products, it has compelled the 
Christian world to l)ecome the prop of that .>^ystom, liy making it necessary 
that she should consume its fruits, liy this decrease of free labor jiro- 
duots, it has placed slavery, aj)parently, upon an immovable liasis, 
enabling it to bid defiance to its enemies, and to force England, tlie 
most deeply interested of all nations in its destruction, to become its 
jirincipal sup])orter. Thus, tlie day of li-eedom for the i^lavc, it would 
seem, is prolonged, and the hope of the jiliilantliropist almost ready \o 
cxj)ire. Here, now, is the position in which this momentous ((uestion 
Htoorl at the opening of 18r)l. 

But befoH! the close of that year, we heard tlio cheering declaration, 
by tiie Hritish I'rime iMinistcr, that the slave trade was virtually at aa 
end. 'J'ired of diplomacy with Brazil, aud wearied with repeated viola- 
tioiis of Irealii's, on the part of that goveriMr.eiit, tlie jMigbsh stputdron 



Fads for Thinlhiy Men. 187 

was sent to her coast, and, by firing into the shave trading vessels in her 
ports, brought her to terms. Brazil at once agreed to prohibit the traffic 
in shxves to her citizens, and it is confidently believed that she will now 
act in good faith, inasmuch as she will be closely watched by England. 

That the boast of the British Premier was no idle one, is proved by 
the parliamentary reports of the present year, on the Brazilian slave 
trade; which show that only about 3,000 slaves had been smuggled into 
Brazil daring the past year, while the number introduced dui'ing the five 
preceding years, had been from 50,000 to 60,000. 

The Queen of England, in her speech of the 15th August, 1852, at 
the prorogation of Parliament, says: "Treaties have been concluded by 
my naval commanders, with the king of Dahomey and all the African 
chiefs whose rule extends along the Bight of Benin, for the total abolition 
of the slave trade, which at present is wholly suppressed upon that post." 

The recent purchase of the tenitory between Liberia and Sierra 
Leone, by President Roberts, upon which our Ohio colony is to be 
planted, has placed the whole of that part of the coast under the juris- 
diction of the Liberian authorities, and forever rendered the slave trade 
illegal throughout its former strong holds in the Gallinas and Grand 
Cape Mount. 

We may, therefore, say, remarks the editor of a leading Boston paper, 
that there is not now, on the whole coast of Africa, a single open, legal- 
ized slave mart for the foreign trade. Slaves may, and no doubt will 
be smviggled from Africa, as long as Cuba encourages the traffic ; but 
there is no longer any place on that continent, where slaves can be 
openly collected and kept for the foreign market and sold to foreign 
traders, under cover of African laws. 

This, then, is a new and most important fact, to be added to those 
which we have noticed in our rapid review of the present condition of 
free lalx)r and slave labor, and it must produce gi-eat revolutions in the 
questions we have been considering. Let us, therefore, proceed to take 
a calm and dispassionate review of the history of past events and results, 
so as to form a sound judgment of what will be the practical effects of 
the suppression of the slave trade, upon the interests of free labor and 
slave labor respectively. As the prosecution of that traffic, by supply- 
ing an abundance of laborers, at cheap rates, has paralyzed free labor 
tropical cultivation, everywhere, and secured to slave labor the principal 
monopoly of the markets of the world for its products, let us see what 
results may be anticipated from the suppression of the slave trade and 
the consequent suspension of the supplies of slaves from Africa to the 
planters of Cuba and Brazil. 

As like causes pi'oduce like effects, under similar circumstances, we 
must see if a like event with the present suppression of the slave trade, 
has before occm-red, and then ascertain the results that followed. A 
case precisely pai-allel, is afforded in the history of the prohibition of the 
plave trade, to the British West India planters, by the English Parlia- 
ment. 

These planters, up to 1806, had received from the slave traders an 
lininterruptcd supply of laborers, and had rapidly extended their culti- 
vation as commerce increased its demands for their products. Let U3 
take the results in Jamaica as an example of the wliole of tlie British 



133 Fads for Th'inJdiig Men. 

West India Islamls. She had increased her exports of su^ar from a 
yearly average of 123,979,000 lbs. in 1772-3, to 234,700,000 Ihs. in 
1805— G. No diminution of exports had occurred, as has been asserted 
by some anti-slavery writers, before the ])rohibition of the slave trade. 
The increase was progressive and undisturbed, except so far as affected 
by seasons more or less favorable. But no soonei' was her supply of 
slaves cut off, by the Act of 180(5, which took effect in 1808, tlian tlie 
exports of Jamaica began to diminish, until her sugar had fallen off from 
1S22 to 1832, to an annual average of 131,120,000 lbs., or nearly to 
wliat tiicy had been sixty years before. It was not until 1833 that the 
Emancipation Act was passetl ; so that this decline in the exports of 
Jamaica, took place under all the rigors of West India slavery. 

The cause of this decline in the exports of the Briti.sh West India 
colonies, is easily explained. The planters preferred males as lal)orers, 
and the slave traders imported males, principally, from Africa, to sell to 
tliom. As soon, therefore, as the supplies were withheld, the slave 
population began to diminish, by the usual mortality among the adults; 
so that, at the end of about twenty-three years, according to Buxton, 
instead of any increase, they had decreased from 800,000 to 700,000. 
Tlio result Of this movement was, that the exports from the whole Brit- 
isli West Indies, were reduced one-third below what they had been before 
the prohibition of the slave trade. 

Now, let us inquire a moment into the condition of Culja and Brazil, 
whicli have been as fully dependent upon the slave trade for their supply 
of laborers, as the British West Indies were before 1808. 

A census of Cuba, a few years since, showed that out of a slave })oi> 
ulation of 42."), 000 there were but 150,000 females. The slave popula- 
tion of Brazil is believed to be compo.sed of about the same disproportion 
in the sexes as that of Cuba. The rate of mortality among adult slaves, 
imported from Africa, is very great, being in Brazil, as Ijefore stated, 
near ten per cent, per annum, and requiring a renewal of that class of 
slaves, on the plantations, once in ten years. 

It is very easy, with these lights before us, to foresee what must bo 
tlie eflect of the suppression of the slave trade on Cuba and Brazil. 
The supply of slaves being cut off, the deatlis must, in a few years, 
e([ualize the sexes, and result in a great decrea.se of the slave population. 
This must produce a corresponding diminution in their exports, for many 
yciars, extending, annually, to at least one-third their former amount. 
1'his decrease in the supply of slave labor products, will create a corre.s- 
j)oiiding increa.se of their prices in the markets. But this enhancement 
of tlicir value will not compensale tlie Cuban and Brazilian slave bolcl- 
(;rs for tlwir diminislieil proilucticin and tlie loi^.ses in the numbe'" uf their 
sla\-.a. The suppression of tlie slave trade, tlien, will be ;> .-crious pecu- 
niary loss to the slaveholders of tliest; two countries. 

But who are to l)e benelitcd liy this revolution in i^lave labor coun- 
tries, hitherto dependent upon the slave trade? Undoubtedly, the 
benefits will Ix; enjoyed l»y free labor, wherever it is employed in the 
cultivation of similar jn'oilucts; and by slave labor in countries not 
depeniling upon the Al'rieaii slave trade. This stimulus to industry, 
(lii'ii, will n.'ai'h Ibiyli, the IJritish West Indies, ami Liberia, to prom))t 
tli''ir I'lc'inen to greater industr}', by the jiiosnect uf better comjR'ii.-atioii 



Facts for Thinldng Men. 189 

for their labor. As the supplies of slave-grown products diminish, and 
the prices increase, free labor products must be multiplied, and free labor 
itsell", in some degree, be released from its embarrassments. 

But this stimulus of higher prices will reach the United States in a 
much greater degree, because our slaveholders are prepared, at once, to 
avail themselves of these advantages, and it will add to the stability of 
slavery, by increasing the price of its products, and enhancing the value 
of the slaves. Already the short supply of Cotton, before noticed, has 
vastly increased the value of both Cotton and slaves, and the suppression 
of the slave trade, at this juncture, must greatly add to the advantages 
of tlie slaveholder of the United States. 

After all the effijrts, therefore, that have been made for the destruc- 
tion of slavery, during a half century of unwearied exertion, the progress 
of events has so complicated this great problem, that at the ^'ery moment 
when the slave trade is supposed to be extinguished, or nearly so, and 
tropical free labor left unshackled, the Christian world is more deeply 
indebted to slave labor than at any former period, and the slavery of the 
United States rendered more permanent and profitable, to all human 
appearance, than at any time since its origin. 

If any one doubts the justness of this conclusion, as a fair deduction 
from the facts which have been presented, we most sincerely and earnestly 
invite him to show us our error, as our only aim is the discovery of 
truth, in the light of which alone, can we hope to discover the path of 
duty, in relation to the great questions connected with the redemption 
of the African race. 

The investigations now completed, have conducted us to a most inter- 
esting conclusion, and brought out results wholly different, no doubt, 
from what most of our readers have been anticipating. They are, how- 
ever, legitimate deductions from the facts connected with the subject, 
and show, most conclusively, that the question of slavery, in our country, 
is placed upon new grounds. 

It shows, also, that those who have had the control of the anti-slavery 
movements, have manifested little foresight in their policy, as nearly 
every measure adopted to check or suppress the evils of slavery and the 
slave trade, have been followed by results the reverse of what they 
expected, and were laboring to secure. But we have no disposition to 
find fault, our only aim being to point to the bearing that the new order 
of things must have upon African Colonization and the prosperity of the 
Republic of Liberia. 

While our researches have revealed the immense extent to which the 
Christian world is now consuming slave-grown products, at the same time 
the utmost capacity of slave labor, to meet the demands of commerce, 
has also been discovered. This Is something gained. In the United 
States, the ratio of increase in the annual production of Cotton, keeps 
even pace with the natural increase of the slaves, and nothing more. 
Our sugar growers cannot go beyond this, except as they draw off the 
lal)orcrs from the cotton fields. Thus stands the slave laljor of the 
United States. 

The slave population of Cuba and Bi-azll, srhould the slave trade be 
effi-'ctually suppressed, will soon be placed upon the same basis as that 
of the Ignited States. The planters there, will have no increase of 



190 Facts for ThinTcing Men. 

laborers, exccptin;:; from the natural increase of the slaves. The reduc- 
tion of the slave population, ]>y the death of the excess of males, judging 
from the results in the English colonies, after 1808, will not be made up 
by tlie natural increase, in less than thirty years. Until that occurs, 
Cuba and Brazil will be unable to keep their exports up to the present 
amount. The exports of the EnglLsh colonies, upon the prohibition of 
the slave trade, fell off one-third, and a like result may now be expected 
in Brazil and Cuba. 

Under these circumstances, the utmost capacity of slave labor, in 
tropical and semi-tropical cultivation, can be accurately estimated, and 
the extent of its supplies to commerce be clearly foreseen. This will 
enable the friends of free labor to measure the strength and resources of 
the forces with which they must compete — a thing that was impossible 
under the reign of the slave trade. But on this point we shall not 
speculate. 

The present inability of free labor and slave labor, both coml)incd, to 
meet the demands of cnnimerce, and the reduction of cultivation that 
must occur in Cuba and Brazil, will leave a vaccuum in the markets, 
for tropical products, to be filled from other sources, or to give an 
increiu^ed value to the amount that can be supplied from the present 
fields of cultivation. 

But who is to be enriched by this result? Who is to supply the 
deficit, and reap the golden harvest it will afford? Or, in default of 
augmented cultivation, who are to have their coffers made to overflow 
by an increase in the price of the productions they are able to furnish? 
These questions are worth considering, and we must give them a 
moment's attention. 

Tlie English West India free labor colonies cannot be much benefited, 
at present, l)y this increased demand for tropical products, as they can- 
not, immediately, increase their cultivation to any great extent. This 
will be readily admitted, when it is .stated that the lands in these colo- 
nies are mostly held by white men, who reside in England ; and that 
the colored men in the islands own but a few acres each — barely enough, 
generally, to affitrd the necessary amount of food for their families. 

But already the West India landholders are bestirring themselves at 
the lirightening prospects, and are appealing to the free colored people 
of the United States, to rush over to the islands, become loyal sidyects 
of Queen Victoria, and faithful lal)orers on the plantations of English 
pjcntlemcn ! Our free colored men, h<iwever, deserve .-something lietter 
than thi.s, and they know it : and they give indications of a determina- 
tion to reject the ])roffi'red boon of bec(jming mere laborers, in the sugar 
mills of the West Indies, es})ecially as they cannot expect over fj/y 
aufs per day, as wages. 

Doubtless, an increa.se of wages will now conunand more of the native 
lal)<>r of tlicse islands, than at any time since emancipation, and tend to 
multiply their exports; but no great advancement can be made until the 
intciligi-nce of the colored peojile is raised nuich above the present 
standard, by more extensive means of education than new prevail, nor 
even then, until tlioy bccouio the owners of the soil. 

As IfiiyM sfill exports aliout one-third of her former amount of {\iffeo, 
hlic will be biMiflitcil I'Y the rise in the price <'f that arlii le ; but as her 



Fads for TJiinldng 3Ten. 191 

Sugar and Cotton cultivation lias Ixsen o-reatlj neglected for many years, 
she will derive little present advantage from tluit quarter by any in- 
creased demand. 

Liberia, with only eight or nine thousand colonists, and eighty 
thousand partially civilized natives, mostly engaged in trade, or in pro- 
ducing food for home consumption, cannot derive any material benefit 
from an increased demand for C'ofFee, Sugar, and Cotton, for some years 
to come. Her citizens, however, are now turning attention to their 
cultivation with encouraging success ; and British capitalists offer to 
her citizens any amount of means for the employment of native labor 
in the cultivation of Cotton. Liberia can command an unbounded 
extent of fertile tropical lands, well adapted to the cultivation of all the 
three great staples upon which slave labor is now chiefly employed. 
She has within her own jurisdiction at least 300,000 natives, mostly 
uncivilized, and is backed in the interior and flanked on the west and 
east by untold millions who must ultimately be redeemed from barbarism. 
All this labor she must one day control. But as she has not now a 
sufficient number of men to cai-ry on the work of civilization, and to 
control this labor, her wealth cannot be greatly augmented by any 
extent of demand for articles she is not producing. 

Becent experiments in Australia, for the cultivation of Cotton, are 
said to have been eminently successful, but the still more recent dis- 
covery of gold in that country has drawn off the laborers from the cotton 
cultivation to the more tempting occupation of gold digging. 

It appears from these statements, that no tropical free labor country 
can derive mvieh immediate benefit from an increased demand for tropical 
products ; and that the great practical good derived from it is only a 
(jonsciousness that the slave trade can no longer paralyze tropical free 
labor and render the fruits of its industry valueless in the markets of 
the world. This, however, is one great point gained, and constitutes 
an era in the history of the African race. 

The parties, then, who will necessarily be benefited in the greatest 
degree, by the suppression of the slave trade, will be the native popula- 
tion of Africa and the slaveholders in the United States. All free 
labor countries, it is true, will be stimulated to immediate action, but 
they will require time to realize much of the benefits of the coming 
changes in the condition of slavery. The natives of Africa will merely 
be freed from their greatest curse, and l)e better prepared for civilization. 
Then, it is evident, that in the suppression of the slave trade, i\\(i slave- 
holders of the United States, alone, of all the pai-ties named, will at 
once enter upon the enjoyment of the benefits of these changes, and 
will continue to be enriched thereby, until free labor multiplies its forces 
and throws into the markets a sufficient amount of products to supply 
the demand and reduce the prices. 

But can free labor do this in a day, a year, or +en years? Certainly 
not. The task, however, has been begun, and in the f>nly mode, and 
on the only territory in which it can succeed ; and, but for the unfor- 
tunate oppc^sition of the Abolitionists, this work might have been in a 
much greater state of forwardness than we now find it. That mode is 
to employ the hthor of Jfn'ra vi'thin Africa. IMaiiy moderate :inti- 
.1.,..,...,, .„..,. „-1,„ 1..^:. ].;;i».vfr. .umn-,.,! i'^ in this cflbrt to call out tree 



102 Fads for TlnnUng Mm. 

labor in Africa, are now giving up their opposition to Colonization; 
bffinf convinced that the good of the colored men themselves, as well 
as tlie interests of free labor, can be most efficiently promoted by emi- 
gration to Liberia. But others are still violently opposed to Colonization. 

Leaving out tlic 500,000 free colored persons of the United States, 
and tliere are but abont one million and three quarters of African free- 
men employed in the cultivation of Coffee, Sugar, and Cotton, for export , 
while the slave population, now simihu'ly employed, is not less than six 
millions and three quarters I Allowing the decrease of the slave popu- 
lation, in Cuba and Brazil, that will follow tlic suppression of the slave 
trade, only to equal that in the English colonies, after 1808, and tliere 
will still be left at least six millions of slaves as competitors against one 
million and three quarters of freemen. 

Now, the contest, if conducted with these forces alone, will be an un- 
equal one, as the degree of intelligence among the majority of the eman- 
cipated West India people is but a few degrees higher than that of the 
natives of Africa, and their voluntary industry will be proportionally 
un|)rodu('tive. 

In stating the strength of the free labor forces, employed as rivals to 
slave lal)or, we have not included the 500,000 free colored men of tlie 
LTnited States. This was intentional, as they do not belong to the forces 
fracticaUij arrayed against slavery. On the contrary, they are, to the 
Titmost of their pecuniary ability, as a body, engaged in its support. 
We speak knowingly, and mean what we say and beg to be heard. 

It is the extensive demand for slave labor products, and the proGts 
on their sale, which is the main prop of slavery. Destroy this demand, 
and slave labor becomes valueless. Let the consumers become producers, 
and the task is accomplished to the full extent of the change effected. 
Draw off enough of the consumers into the ranks of the producers, to 
supply the demand for slave grown products, at lower rates than slave 
labor can afford them; and the whole system must be paralyzed, just as 
certainly as the cheap slave labor, supplied by the slave ti-ade, was ruin- 
ous t<j free labor. 

But the free colored judplo of the United States, instead of being 
tluis arrayed against slavi-ry, by remaining here, arc practically sus- 
taiiiiii<5 that institution, and perpetuating it as far as the patronage of a 
half million of customers can lend it support. 

How are they doiii;^ this V The coloreil people have sworn ei cm al 
tniMify to slavery, and have jdedged themselves to struggle for its 
downfall ; how is it, then, that they can lie thus eng;«>v(l, penseveringly, 
in the support of an institulion towards which they bear an unbounded 
hatred? 

Well, they are doing it in this way, and, like the Christian world at 
lar^^e, they are supporting slavery from necessity. At a nioderate esti- 
mate, each free colored person ])urthase.-, annuall}', three dollars' worth 
ol' cotton fvoods for clothing. This gives a support lo slave hibor, and 
its manufacturing allies, of one million and a half of dolLus a year; an 
aiiiount more than equal to the whole sum expended in founding the 
Keniiblie of Lil)cria; and which, if invested in the hire of native labor 
i'l AlViea, would enqiloy over (iO.OOO freemen In the cullivatiun of Cob- 
aml ss'wv a (rein.-iidous impuL-^e to free labor. 



Facts fur TliinkuKj J/cn. 1U3 

Wo know the free colored people did not mean po, bnt for all practical 
purposes, in tlic contest for African freedom, tliey have, all alon"-, becu 
fightino; on the wrong side ! 

But what can these 500,000 free colored people do, to prevent the 
profitable extension of slave labor, now appearing so inevitable in conse- 
quence of its advantageous position! Shall they fight 'f That is a 
hopeless remedy. Shall they remain here to agitate the question, and 
continue the consumption of slave grown products? The past history 
of this mode of warfare, proves it powerless in promoting their object. 
AVhat can they do, then, to secure to free labor at least the benefits of 
the increasing demands for tropical products, and thus limit slavery to 
its present advantages, and prevent its further extension V Surely, the 
answer is a plain one. Let these 500,000 free colored persons become 
producers of free labor products, instead of consumers of those that are 
slave grown, and let them call to their aid ten times their own numbers, 
and soon their weight, as a people, would be felt and acknowledged by 
the Christian world. But there is no country in the world, except 
Africa, where a sufficient amount of laborers can be found to affect this 
great question. 

And here now, allow us to say, that the whole practical tendency of 
Colonization, so far as it has reference to the free colored people, from 
the day of its origin, has been to array them on the side of free labor; 
and that, too, under such circumstances as would b.est promote their own 
interests and tliat of tlieir children, and advance the cause of human 
freedom in Africa and throughout the world-. For, so long as Africa 
remains barljarous, just so long will the people of color, scattered through- 
out the world, be reckoned as an inferior race, not capable of enjoying 
equal rights with the white races among whom they dwell. 

And allow us to say, further, that we do not expect that these 5tl0,000 
free colored persons, by emigrating to Liberia, will be able, by the labor 
of their own hands to compete with the slave labor still employed in 
tropical cultivation, and to secure to themselves, at once, all the benefits 
of the increasing demands of commerce for the productions of tlie trojiics : 
but we do say, that they will be equal participants in it, and that there 
is no other possible mode of employing the African free labor within 
Africa, and making it rival African slave labor in other countries, but 
by the emigration of intelligent colored men to that continent, to take it,s 
labor under their care and give it a proper direction. 

And is not the control of the labor of Africa sufficiently valuable to 
tempt the enterprise of intelligent colored men to secure its possession? 
Heretofore naiions have contended for its monopoly, and is it not worth 
the attention of individuals 'i Look at what African lalior has done out 
cf Africa, and then judge of its capabilities if employed within Africa ; 
and judge, also, of tlie priceless boon which southern slaveholders be- 
stow upon their bondmen, when they offer them freedom in Liberia ! 

Hiihcrto the thousands of milUons of dollars' worth of products, trans- 
ported by commerce to the ends of the earth, from the tropical and semi- 
tropical districts of the "Western Hemisphere, to aggrandize the nations 
who possessed their control, have all been created by the strong arms 
and broken heai-ts of tlio sons and daughters of iViiica. Century after 
century,- Africa's children have been torn from hor bosom, to labor for 



]'J4 Facts for TldithiiKj Men. 

tho enrichment of strangers, and to die and be forgotten as the brutes 
of the fielil ! Nor was this acooniplishcd but by (U'cadful losses of human 
lifo — losses, which, if occurring in any ordinary l)raneh of commerce, 
v.ould lead to its abandonment as a ruinous speeidation. Look at these 
lueses but a moment : for each odO men, made available to the planter, 
by the slave trade, Africa had to lose 1,000 — the 700 perishing in tlie 
casualties attending the traffic. Tropical cultivation must be vastly 
profitable to bc;xi' such losses as this. And yet, with all these disadvan- 
tages, what has not slave labor accomplished in the production of wealth ! 
Take as an example, the slave grown crops of Coffee, Sugar, and Cotton, 
fur a single year, namely, 1849, and their market value, at only eight 
and one-half cents per pound, was over two hundred and thirty millions 
of dollars ! ! 

Now if African lalior, after the destruction of seven-tenths, to make 
tln-ee-tenths available, has enriched half the nations of the world, and 
now sup[)lies the basis of two-tliirds of their commerce, what may not be 
expected for Africa herself, when all lier labor shall become available 
for lier own aggramlizement':' 

And, need we repeat, that Colonization is but a broad scheme of 
intervention, for securing to Africa the benefits of her own labor ; that 
Ijil)eria is but the foundation stone of the glorious temple, yet to bo 
reared in Africa, to freedom and to God ; that the part we ask our free 
colored people to perform, is ])ut to perfect this work of benevolence and 
love ; that without their aid, the development of the resources of Africa 
must be slow, and slave labor lie left, almost without a rival, to extend 
itself upon this continent, crushing free labor and the colored freeman 
both into the dust ; and that, though there will be six millions of slaves, 
against whom to do battle in the markets of the world, the free colored 
people, by removing to Africa, will have one himdred millions of their 
^wn race to summon to their aid, in sustaining themselves in this final 
struggle for the social, civil, and religious redemption of themselves and 
of tlie long beniglited land of their fathers. 

And who will now dare to oppose Colonization, and say, that Africa, 
after enriching the world by her labor, shall not now receive back to her 
cinltrace, enough of her captive cliildren to secure to herself the pirofits 
of her in<lustryl AVho will be l)old enough to deny to her enougli of 
her cidightened sons, to organize her scattered triljcs into one great 
nation, enabling her to become the gigantic commi'rcial country, for 
which she is so eminently fitted by her innnense popuhition and wondci- 
fid agricultural resources! 

Willi such facts before him, as are endiraced in these })ages, who can 
fail to foresee the results of the new contest that is conniiencing, and to 
realize that tlie triumph or defeat of tropical free lalior. is d(>])cndent upon 
the course of action ado])teil by the colored freemen of the L'nited States. 
Truly, may it be said, lliat the destiny of Africa, and the African race, 
is now in their hands ! And, with equal truth, may we not as.'jert, that 
opposition to Colonization, is oj)position to the extension of Free Labor 
•anil must tend to the perpetuation of sla^-"-'- 



NOTK 

Does the Slave Trade and Slavery exist among Liber ians 7 

The organization of tho Republic of Liberia, has eCFectcd a radical change in the comn/ercial 
regulations within the territory over which it claims jurisdiction. The laws of the licpublic have 
interfered with the business of the merchants trading on that c(>as\ by requiring that tliey shall 
now pay duties on the goods sold to the natives, where formerly they could tiaffic freely, with- 
out being interrupted by tariffs. This change iu the mode of conducting their trade, has lessened 
the profits of the merchants, and has enraged, against the Kepublic, that class of them who have 
b(;en more anxious to amass fortunes than to promote the social and moral welfare of the African 
people. 

Tiie feebleness of the little Republic seems to have led this cla.ss of men to believe, that, if they 
could succeed in persuading Christian nations to withdraw their protection, the settlements mi^^ht 
easily be destroyed by hostile natives, or the government compelled to relinquish its claims to tlie 
exercise of sovereignty. In either case, the trade of the coast would be restored to its previous 
conilitiou, and they left in the possession of their former advantages. 

Tlie most artful and successful mode of attack upon Liberia, has been tc represent the Colonists 
a,s aiding in the slave trade, and as subjecting the natives to slavery. This charge has been so 
often I'epeated, that the friends of Liberia, in England, have investigated the suliject, and the 
following testimony, from men of the highest characlicr in the British Navy, has been collected 
and laid before the public. Other testimony, equally conclusive, might be added, but what is 
here appended, is considered as amply sufficient to stamp the charges as infamously false. 

l!ut we must first, state that the Constitution framed for the Colonists, by the American Colo- 
nization Society, and by which they were governed Irom 182o to 183(3, declared, " Art. V. There 
shall be no slavery in the settlement ;'' and, further, that in 1839, a Legislative Council was 
created in Liberia, and the Constitution remodeled, «o as to read thus : 

Art. 20. " There shall be no slavery in the Commonwealth." 

Art 22. " There shall be no dealing in slaves by any citizen of the Commonwealth, either 
within or beyond the hmits of the same.'* 

In 1847, the Colony declared itself an Independent Republic, with the following language in 
its Constitution : 

'• Art. I. — Sec. 1, All men are born equally free and independent, and among their natural 
inherent and inalienable rights, are the rights of enjoying and defending li/e and lidkhty. 

See. 4. There shall be no slavery within this Republic. Nor shall any citizen of this Kepublic 
or any person resident therein, deal in slaves, either within or without this llepublic. 

Sec. 8. No person shall be deprived of life, hberty, property, privilege, but by the judgment 
of his peers, or the law of the land. 

In testimony of her sincerity, in reference to human rights, in her Treaty with England, which 
went into ojieration in April, 1850, Liberia binds herself as follows : 

Art. 9. •' Slavery and the slave trade being perpetually abolished in the Republic of Liberia, 
the Republic engages that a law shall be passed declaring it to be piracy for a7iy Liberian citizen 
or vessel to be engaged or concerned in the slave trade." 

New for the testimony in relation to the faithfulness with which all these articles have been 
executed. [\S'e quote from the Colonization Herald, Dec. 1852 ] 

" Captain Arabian, R. N., in one of his despatches says : " Nothing has been done more to sup- 
press the slave trade in this quarter, than the constant intercourse of the natives with these indus- 
trious colonists ;" and, again : " Their character is exceedingly correct and moral ; their minds 
strongly impressed with religious feeling ; and their domestic habits, remarkably neat and com- 
forttible." '' Wherever the influence of Liberia extends, the slave trade has been abandoned by 
the natives." 

l>ieutenant Stott, R.N., inaletter to Dr. Ilodgkin, dated July, 1840, says, it (fjiberia) promises 
to be the only successful institution on the coast of Africa, "keeping in mind its objects, viz : 
" that of raising the African slave into a free man ; the extinction of the slave trade ; and the 
religious and moral improvement of Africa ;" and adds, " The surrounding Africans are awaro 
of tlie nature of the colony, taking refuge when persecuted by the few neighboring slave traders. 
The remnant of a tribe have lately lied to and settled in th^ colony on land granted them, 
letween my two visits, a lapse of only a few days, four or five slaves fought refuge from tlu ir 
muster, who was about to sell or had sold them to the only slave factory on the coast. 'J'lie 
native chiefs in the neighborhood have that respect for the colonists, that they have made 
treaties for the abolition of the slave trade." 

Captain Irving, R. N., in a letter to Dr. Ilodgkin, August 3d, 1840, observes: "You ask me if 
they aid in the slave trade. I assure j ou, no 1 and I am sure the colonists would feel themselves 
ihuch hurt should they know such a question could possibly arise iu England. In my opinion 
it is the best and safest plan for the extinction of the slave trade, and the civilization of Afrita ; 
lor it is a well known fact tiiat wherever their flag flics it is an eje sore to the slave dealers." 

Captain Herbert, R. N. : '• >\'ith regard to the present state of slave taking in the colony of 
Liberia, 1 have never known one instance of a slave being owned or disposed of by a colonist. On 
the contrary. I have known them to render great facihty to ourcruisei's there in tJiking vessels 
engaged in that nefarious traffic." 

Captain Dunlop, who had abundant opportunities for becoming acquainted with Liberia during 
the years 1848, '49, and '50, says : '• I am perfectly satisfied no such thing as domestic slavery 
e.xists, ia any shape amongst the citizens of the Kepublic." 

Commodore Sir Charles Ilotham, Commander-in-chief of II. 13. Majesty's squadron on the West- 
ern Coast of Africa, in a letter to the Secretary of the Admiralty, dated April 7, 1847, and pub- 
lished in the Parliamentary Returns, says : " On perusing the correspondence of my predecessors, 
1 found a great difference of opinion existing as to the views and objects of the settlers ; some even 
accu.sing the governor of lending himself to the slave trade. After di.scussing the whole subject 
with oflicers and others best qualiiied to judge on the matter. I not only satisfied my own mind 
that there is no reasonable cause for such a suspicion, but further, that this establishment merits 
all the support we can give it ; for it is only through their means that we can hope to inipiove tho 
African race." Subsequently, in 1849, the same officer gave his testimony before the House of 
Lords, in the following language : " There is no necessity for the squailron watching the coast 
between Sierra Leone and t'ape i'almas, as the Liberian territory intervene?, and there the slave 
trade has been cxtiricrui,':hed." 



P AIIT PI FT H. 



In temporal caftairs, experience supplies the best rule for the giiidanes 
of man. In spiritual concerns, the word of God is the law by wliich 
his conduct must be governed. In relation to the spread of the Gospel, 
while the Saviour has given a few general directions, as to the mode of 
its propagation, he has left much to human wisdom, as to the measures 
by which it is to be extended. Pagan countries ditl'er so widely in 
their civil relations, social customs, superstitions, and degrees of intel- 
ligence, that corresponding variations must be made in the plans for 
their evangelization. Africa, Avhen first visited by the Missionary, was 
one broad field of ignorance and barbarism. Its condition differed so 
widely from that of any other country, where missions liad been estab- 
lished, that the efforts made for its redemption, could be little else than 
experiments. 

The time has arrived when we may safely proceed to contrast the 
results of the several classes of missions in Africa, ascertain what ex- 
perience teaches, and determine the rule by which the greatest progress 
is to be made, in the extension of Civilization and Christianity, in that 
land of darkness and desolation. This task we now propose to exe- 
cute, and shall take up the several missions in the following order : 

1. The missions founded in Liberia. 

2. Those in the English colonies of Recaptured Africans. 

3. Those among native tribes, beyond the protection of the colonies. 

4. Those to the natives of South Africa, wilhin the English colonies 
of white men. 

I. llie Missionn founded in Liberia. 

Rev. Samuel J. Mills is called the father of our Foreign Missionary 
scheme. His heart lirst received the Divine impress of the spirit of 
missions, and tlirough him it was communicated to others. " I think 
I ran trust myself in the liands of God, and all that is dear to nir ; 
but I long to have the time arrive, when the Gospel shall be jirenchi d 
to the ])oor Africans." This language, entered in his diary, while a 

(1 {»(■;) 



The Missions founded in Liheria. 197 

student at College,* proves that the thought of Africa was foremost in 
his mind. He beheld her captive children, dwelling in our midst, 
deeply degraded. From this condition they could not be elevated to 
the dignity of freemen. Christian philanthropy made the eflfort, but 
was unable to afford them relief.j- Their country, too, was yet a 
bleeding \iclim, with few to pity and none to protect. 

With the National Independence of our country, there arose higher 
conceptions of the individual man. This was a logical inference from 
the principles maintained. People found themselves capable of self- 
government ; hence, the individual must possess the capacity for self- 
elevation. So reasoned the founders of our Republic ; and, to this 
end, equal laws and privileges were secured to every citizen, that the 
improvement of all might be promoted. But in the case of the col- 
ored man, the National Government was powerless. It possessed 
neither the means, nor the constitutional authority, to change the rela- 
tions in which he stood to the whites. It only remained, therefore, to 
make the colored man, himself, the instrument of his own redemption. 
No sooner had this thought sprung into existence, than it was seized 
by the Philanthropist ; and, in his grasp, it suddenly expanded into 
the grand idea of making him also the agent for the deliverance of 
his country. 

The time had come for Samuel J. Mllls to act. Five years had 
rolled away since his companions, whom he had enlisted in the cause — 
JuDSON, Newell, Nott, Hall, and Rice — had gone to their fields of 
labor, in the East.^J; Africa, as well as Asia, was now remembered 
by the friends of Foreign Missions ; and Mills offered himself,§ to open 
the pathway for the colored man's return, with the Gospel of peace, to 
the home of his fathers. He accomplished his object, only to find his 
grave in the ocean, thus marking the Avay the captive must pursue to 
reach a land of freedom. 

The exploration of Mr. Mills, was made in company with the Rev. 
Ebeivezer Burgess, under a commisson from the American Coloniza- 
tion Society. His death was deeply lamented by the friends of 
Foreign Missions, but the importance of the cause in which he fell, 
justified the sacrifice. The favorable report made by Mr. Burgess, 
enabled the Society to proceed in its enterprise. The first emigrants, 
86 in number, sailed for Africa, February, 1820 ; and the Colony was 
first planted at Monrovia, January, 1822. The pecuniary income of 
the Society being small, || the emigration was slow — only 1,232 persons 
having reached the Colony during the first 10 years. The average 
number of Colonists, up to the period when the 'Colony became inde- 
pendent, was only about 170 per annum: the average from the first 

*1806. 

t^Ir. Mills enlisted in this cause himself, but on the organization of the 
American Colonization Society, be embarked in it as the more practicable 
scheme. " X 1S12. § 1817. 

11 The receipts, for the first six years, averaged only $3,276 per annum. 



19S The Missions founded in Liberia. 

of January, 1848, to the close of 1852, has been o40 per annum: 
and for 1853, alone, it has been 782: thus showing a rapid increase 
since the establishment of the Republic. Previous to that date, three- 
fourths of the emigrants had been emancipated slaves, who receive 1 
their freedom on condition of going to Liberia ; but, since its independ- 
ence, a largely increased proportion have been freemen. 

We shall not enter upon the history of the trials to which Liberia 
has been subjected, as the main facts are familiar to every one. Her 
extermination by war, on the one hand, has been thrice attempted by 
the slave traders, through the agency of the native Africans; and, on 
the other hand, her ruin lias been sought, in the destruction of the 
Colonization Society, by an immense moral force, at the head of which 
slood men Avho are now the avowed enemies of the Bible. Good men, 
who, for a time, were arrayed in opposition to Colonization, iinding 
themselves involved in a crusade against the introduction of the Gos- 
pel into Africa, have, mostlj', given in their adhesion to the cause, and 
left the repudiators of Christianity and the traffickers in human flesh, 
as the only enemies to African Colonization. The prayer of Samuel 
J. Mills, for the introduction of the Gospel into Africa, has been 
heard, and Ethiopia now stretches forth her hands unto God. 

In proceeding to the missionary history of Liberia, we shall begin 
with the Methodist Episcopal Church. The mission in the Republic 
of Liberia, is her oldest in the Foreign field. The nucleus of this mis- 
sion, consisted of several niembei's, and one or two local preachers, of 
the Methodist Church, who went out with the first emigrants. la 
March, 18.33, the Rev. Melville B. Cox, the first ordained missionary, 
landed in Monrovia, To maintain this mission, has cost much trea- 
sure, and many precious lives ; but the fruits of it are inestimable. It 
is now formed into a regular Annual Conference, composed of three 
districts, each with a presiding (;lder, and having its circuits, stations, 
and clay and Sunday schools. The mission now covers the whole ter- 
ritory of Liberia and that of Cape Palmas.* The Conference con- 
sists of 21 members in full connection and on trial, all of whom arc 
colored men. Its churches, according to the Agent's Report, 185:i. 
embrace 1,301 members, of whom 116 are natives, and there are Wo 
probationers. The Mission has 15 Sunday schools, with 839 pupils, 
of whom .W are natives ; and 20 week-daj- schools, with 513 scholars. 
There are also 7 schools among the natives, with 127 pupils. 

The sums appropriated to sustain this mission were, for 1851, 
$22,000; for 1852, $20,000 ; for 1853,5:32,957; and for 1851, 
S32,957. This liberality is sufficiently expressive of the confidence 
of the Methodist Church in Liberia. The Report of the Board of 
Managers, for 1851, says : 



• Cape Palmas, in its political organization, is a distinct colony from Lil)eria. 
It waH fiilablislifd V)y Maryland, and has recently dechired its independence. 
AVt! sliall Kpeak of il, however, as a part of Liberia. Tlieir territories lie eon- 
tigiions, and the Missions of most of the Societies are coiiinioii to butli culuiiie.='. 



The Missions fvnmled in Libena. 199 

" All eyes are now turned toward this New Republic on tlie 
AVestern coast of Africa, as the star of hope to the colored people, 
both bond and free, in the United States. The Republic is establish- 
ing and extending itself; and its Christian population is in direct con- 
tact with the natives, both Pagans and Mohammedans. Thus tlie 
Republic has, indirectly, a powerful missionary influence, and its 
moral and religious condition is a matter of grave concern to the 
C/luirch. Hence, the Protestant Christian missions in Liberia, art- 
essential to the stability and prosperity of the Republic ; and the sta- 
bility and prosperity of the Republic are necessary to the protection 
and action of the missions. It will thus appear, (concludes the Re- 
port,) that the Christian education of the people, is the legitimate 
work of the missions." 

Governed by these considerations, the Methodists have erected a 
seminary building, in Monrovia, at a cost of ^10,000, which is now 
afibrding instruction to youth in the higher departments of science and 
literature. 

The Report for 1853,* speaks still more encouragingly of the mis- 
sion in Liberia. It says: 

" The value of this mission is, perhaps, inconceivable : it not only 
dispenses the Avord of life to the people, but it contributes largely to 
the maintenance of good morals and good order in the Republic, and 
thus strengthens and assists in preserving the State. In this way it 
indirectly contributes to make the Republic of Liberia a steady light, 
beckoning the free colored people of this country to a land where they 
can be truly free and equal, and where only they can be truly nun 
and ii'overn themselves. The mission is thus assisting' the State to 
give a triumphant answer to our Southern States when they ask, If 
we set the slave population at liberty, where can they go and be free 
and prosperous ? This is a result of immense value. It probably 
contains the solution of the question of American slavery — that great 
mystery of iniquity which dims the otherwise resplendent light of our 
glorious Republic. And yet, further, this African mission in the Re- 
public of Liberia is a steady and shining light to the western portion' 
of Africa, where now reigns the most degrading, cruel, and destructive 
superstitions to be found in the world. Until within a quarter of ; 
century past, many thousands of human victims have been sacrificed 
annually, in their cruel and dark religious rites, within sight of th( 
coast; and not very far removed from the coast these sacriiices still 
continue, to an extent of which it makes one shudder to think, much 
less to behold. Can the Church waver in her support of such a mis- 
sion on the Western coast of Africa. She will not." 

By order of the General Conference, Bishop Scott made an oflicir.l 
visit to Liberia, at the close of 1852, and returned in April, 1853 — 
having spent seventy days in the Colonies. He represents the spiriL- 

* Missionary Advocate, April, 1853. 



200 Tkc Missions founded in Liberia. 

ual condition of the Mission as, generally, lu-altliy and prosperous ; 
and the work as going steadily onward. In relation to the civil 
and social condition of the Colony, the Bishop bears the following 
testimony : 

"The government of the Republic of Liberia, which is formed on 
the raodcd of our own, and is wholly in the hands of colored men, 
seems to be exceedingly well administered. I never saw so orderly a 
people. I saw but one intoxicated colonist while in the country, and 
I heard not one profane word. The Sabbath is kept with singular 
strictness, and the churches crowded with attentive and orderly wor- 
shipers."* 

But, as regards the missions among the natives, the Bishop says, 
very little indeed has been done — much less than the friends of the 
mission seem to have good reason to expect — much less than he him- 
self expected. The result of his inquiries is by no means flattering, 
and he felt, and feared that the Board would feel, disappointed. These 
results, however, he says, are not due to any want of faithfulness on 
the part of the missionaries ; as other denominations have not been 
more successful — perhaps not quite so much so — but are the result of 
the peculiar condition of the native population. These peculiarities 
will be noticed under the head of the native missions. 

The American Baptist Missionary Union, commenced its mission 
in Liberia, in 1822, under the care of the Rev. Lot Carey and the Rev. 
Collin Teage ; who had been ordained to the ministry, in Richmond, 
Virginia, January, 1821. They were both colored men, and possessed 
of much intelligence and energy. They commenced their labors in 
Monrovia, in the infant colony of Liberia, and founded a Church dur- 
ing the first j'ear. Lot Carey was chosen pastor of the Cliuvch, anil 
Mr. Teage removed for a time to Sierra Leone. "In the performance 
of his duties as a missionary, Mr. Carey evinced remarkable energy and 
faithfulness. He was born a slave in Virginia, but many years before 
leaving Richmond he had i)urohased his freedom and that of his two 
••hildren, and had acquired the rudiments of a superior education, and 
proved himself worthy of the highest trusts in the business with which 
i.e was charged. On the ])estilential shores of Africa he soon found 
nccasion for all the knowledge he had acquired, both among his fellow 
.-migrants and the rude barbarians from the interior with whom they 
became associated. By his acquaintance with medicine, he hoaleil 
beir maladies ; by his sagacity in civil affairs, he settled their disputes 
i^ixd aided in the organization of their infant society ; and by his earn- 
istness and power as a preacher, he commended the Gospel to their 
l^.earts and consciences with unusual success."! 

In 1825, the Rev. Calvin Ilolton, a white man, went out as a mis- 

• Letter to the Colonization Ilerakl— October, 1853. 

+ Gaiuiuel's History of the American Baptist Missions. 



The Missions founded in Liberia. 201 

sionary, but died almost immediately after his arrival. *' The mission 
continued to be sustained by Mr. Carey, with the aid of two or three 
pious assistants from among the emigrants. The resources by which 
it was kept alive were supplied almost entirely by his own efforts, as 
the funds which were furnished by the Board were of necessity at this 
time exceedingly limited. The labors of the mission were bestowed 
upon the emigrant colonists, and also, as far as possible, upon the na- i 
tives of the country, who had either been rescued from slave-ships 
and settled upon the coast, or had voluntarily come in from the neigh- 
boring wilderness to join the colonies of their more civilized brethren. 
Mr. Carey in this manner preached and maintained schools at Monro- 
via, and also at Grand Cape Mount, among the Veys, one of the most 
powerful and intelligent of the tribes on the coast. At these and 
other settlements he was the life and soul of nearly all the religious 
eiibrts and operations that were carried on. He preached several 
times every week, superintended schools both for religious and secular 
instruction, — in some of which he taught himself, — traveled from one 
settlement to another, and watched with constant vigilance and unre- 
mitting care over all the spiritual and the social interests of the 
colonists. 

"In September, 1826, he was unanimously elected vice-agent of 
the colony, and on the return of Mr. Ashmun to the United States, in 
1828, he was appointed to discharge the duties of Governor in the in- 
terim — a task which he performed during the brief remnant of his life 
with wisdom, and with credit to himself. His death took place in a 
manner that was fearfully sudden and extraordinary. The natives of 
the country had committed depredations upon the property of the col- 
ony, and were threatening general hostilities. Mr. Carey, in his capac- 
ity as acting Governor, immediately called out the military forces of 
the colony, and commenced vigorous measures for repelling the assault 
and protecting the settlements. He was at the magazine, engaged in 
superintending the making of cartridges, when, by the oversetting of 
a lump, a large mass of powder became ignited, and produced an ex- 
plosion which resulted in the death of Mr. Carey and seven others who 
were engaged with him. In this sudden and awful manner perished 
an extraordinary man, — one who in a higher sphere might have devel- 
oped many of the noblest energies of character, and who, even in the 
humble capacity of a missionary among his own benighted brethren, 
deserves a prominent place in the list of those who have shed luster 
upon the African race. 

" At the period of Mr. Carey's death, the Church, of which he was 
the pastor, contained 100 members, and was in a highly flourishing con- 
dition. It was committed to the charge of Collin Teage, who now re- 
turned from Sierra Leone, and of Mr. Waring, one of its members, who 
had lately been ordained a minister. The influences which had com- 
menced with the indefatigable founder of the mission continued to be felt 
long after he had ceased to live. The Church at Monrovia was increased 



202 The Missions founded in Liberia. | 

to 200 members, and the power of the Gospel was manifested in other 
settlements of the Colonization Societ}', and even among the rude na- 
tives of the coast, of wliora nearly 100 were converted to Chrisu.mity 
and united with the several churches of the colony."* 

In December, 1830, Rev. B. Skinner, a white man, with his wife and 
two cliildren, reached Monrovia, to take charge of the mission. I'ln ■• 
were all seized with the African fever, soon after landing, and Mr-. 
Skinner and the children died. Mr. S. so far recovered as toembaiiv 
for home, in July following, but died the twentieth day of the passa^i 

In 1834, Dr. Skinner, the father of the missionary, went out as ;. 
physician, and was afterward appointed governor of the colony. Soi - 
after his arrival, he recommended the Bciptist Board to establish tlu n 
mission, for the benefit of the natives, amono- the Bassa tribe. 

In 1835, two other white men. Rev. G. W. Crocker, and Rev. Mr 
Mylne, were sent out to the Bassas. Mrs. Mylne, who had accon;- 
panied her husband, died in a month, and Mr. M., after laboring near!\- 
ihree years, was forced, by ill health, to i-eturn to the United State-, 
Mr. Crocker continued his labors, and was married, in 1840, to Mi s 
Warren, who had gone out as a teacher. She died soon afterwaid, 
and the declining health of Mr. Crocker compelled him to leave fur llio 
United States. 

In 1838, two years before Mr. Crocker left, he had been joined by 
Rev. Ivory Clarke and wife, whites, who continued to occupy the 
station, and labored with great success for several years. 

In December, 1840, Messrs. Constantine and Fielding, wilh their 
wives, all whites, reached the Bassa mission. Mr. and Mrs. F. both 
died in six weeks ; and Mr. and Mrs. C. were so much debilitated by the 
fever that tlu-y were compelled to return home in 1842. 

In 1844, the health of Mr. Crocker had become so far restored, that 
he resolved to return to Africa ; and, having been united in marriage 
to Miss Chadbourne, he sailed for Liberia, but died two days after 
landing. " Thus fell, in the midst of high raised hopes, and at an un- 
expected moment, a missionary of no common zeal and devotion to the 
cause." j 

On the death of Mr. Crocker, his widow attached herself to the mis- 
sion, and labored for its advancement for two years ; when the wreck 
of her constitution, under the influence of the climate, compelled h«'r 
to abandon the work, in 1846, and return home. 

In 1848, Mr. Clarke and his wife found their constitutions so com- 
pletely shattered, and their strength so nearly exhausted, that they left 
the mission to return to the United States. But he had tarried at his 
]iust too long; death overtook him on the passage, and the sea supplied 
liim a grave. 

Thus, after thirteen years' labor, and the sacrilice of a noble band 
of martyrs to the cause of African redemption, was the Bassa mission 



* GamLuel's History of the American Baptist Missious. flljid. 



I The Missions founded in Lileriu. 203 

eifleft Avitlioiit a head, except so far as it could be supplied by the native 
i-;Converts. Amongst them, there was one preacher and four teachers, 
;t, who kept up the organization of the little church, and continued the 
i schools. 

V It was not until 1852, that the Board had any offers of missionaries 
Tifor Bassa, to supply the place of those who had fallen or retreated. In 
. that year, however. Rev. J. S. Goodman, and Rev. W. B. Shermer, and 
litheir wives, offered themselves to the Board, and were accepted. They 
, ;set sail November 27, 1852, and were accompanied by Mrs. Crocker, 
ilwho longed to return to the mission and devote her life to the service 
of her Lord and Master. 

This Mission family was permitted to reach its field of labor in safety; 
but recent information brings the painful intelligence of the death of Mrs. 
Crocker and Mrs. Shermer ; and that Mr. Shermer himself, had also 
been very ill, and had left Africa to return home by way of England. 
In writing from London, imder date of January 13, 1854, he says : 
" That during the past twelve months, six missionaries of different de- 
nominations have died, and eight have been and are obliged to return 
to America; all of whom had gone to Africa within the last year. 
This is indeed a fearful mortality among African missionaries. Yet 
God has a people there, and if the white man can not live to evangel- 
ize them, he can and will raise up other agencies. Educated colored 
men, in all probability, must and will be the only instrumentality em- 
ployed in the conversion of Africa."* 

The mission, before the recent deaths, consisted of 2 stations, 2 mis- 
sionaries, 4 female assistants, and 4 native assistants. Its Church has 
16 members ; and it has 2 day-schools with 36 pupils, and 2 Sabbath- 
Schools with 60 pupils. 

The Foreign Missionary Board of the Southern Baptist Con- 
vention, came into existence in 1845. Its organization was a result of 
the differences of opinion, on the subject of slavery, among the mem- 
bers of the American Baptist Missionary Union. The Liberia Churches, 
which were founded by Lot Carey, Collin Teage, and their succes- 
sors, connected themselves with the Southern Board, while Bassa, alone, 
continued its adherence to the Northern Board. This arrangement 
gave the Southern Board, at once, a strong missionary force in Liberia ; 
and the mission has continued to prosper under their supervision. At 
present, it is composed of 13 stations, 19 missionaries and teachers, 11 
d;iy-schools, 400 scholars, and 584 communicants. As far as we can 
learn, all these missionaries are colored men. 

The Board proposes to occupy three stations in Central Africa, by 
six missionaries, four of whom are already secured, and have departed 
for their field of labor. The mission field in Africa, is represented as 
very important and very inviting, both on account of the constantly 

* Baptist Missionary Magazine, March, 1854. 



204; T'he Missions founded in Liberia. 

increasing cmigralion from the United States, and the facilities enjoyed 
I'ur the evangelization of the heathen tribes. During the meeting of liiei 
Convention at Baltimore, in June, 1 B53, the advantages of Central Africa: 
were discussed at length ; and the Rev. T. J. Bowen,*' who liad ex- 
plored the held, delivered an address, in which he spoke particularly of 
Yoruba, as a country with a delightful climate, apparently healthy, and 
moderately fertile. The people, he said, are far above savages, polite 
in their manners, quite intelligent, and dwelling in walled cities, some 
of which cover au area as large as the city of J^^ew York. They are 
prepared by their religion, he conceives, to appreciate the value of the 
great Sacritice and Mediator, Jesus, and are willing and anxious to heari 
the Gospel ; and some of them, during his short stay of eight weeks, 
gave evidence of a change of heart and of faith in Christ. He was 
the first white man who had visited some parts of that country ; and 
"his narrative was at once surprising and encouraging." 

The Presbyterian Board of Missions, (0. S.,) sent their first mis- 
sionaries to West Africa, in 1833. The Jlev. J. B. Pinney was the 
pioneer in this mission. In the earlier years of its existence, it was 
greatly interrupted and retarded by the sickness or death of its mis- 
sionaries ; but within the last few years its prospects are more en- 
couraging. In 1837, attempts were made to establish missions among 
the natives, and the efforts continued throughout a series of years, 
iluch labor and several valuable lives were sacrificed in the work, and 
the only remaining fruit is a single station, at Settra Kroo, with a small 
school for native children. In 1850, a new mission to the natives was- 
commenced at Corisco Island, Avhich, thus far, is very promising. 

The mission in Liberia, for colonists and natives, was the first estab- 
lished and has been more prosperous. It now embraces 116 church 
members, 2 ordained ministers and 1 licentiate, 3 congregations, and 
flourishing Sabbath-schools. The day-schools are well attended, by 
both colonists and natives. The Board, 1852, sent out the ilev. D. A. 
AVilson, a white man, of finished education, to take charge of the Alex- 
ander High School, and raise it to the grade of a college. At Mon- 
rovia, the press for admission into the English school of Mr. James, is 
represented as so great, that it had been found almost impossible to 
keep the number as low as fifty scholars — the number had averaged 
70, and in consequence of the inadec^uacy of teachers, the progress of 
the pupils had been less rapid than, under other circumstances, must 
have been the case. 

The Board urges the necessity of multiplying the number of educated 
ministers and teachers in Liberia ; and oilers, as an argument in favoi 
of that field, and the one on Corisco Island, that these missions are 
likely soon to yield abundant fruits of Gospel culture. The following 

» Mr. Bowen was in Abbeotiita, when the king of Dahomey attempted it3 
destruction, us detailed hereafter. 



The Missions founded in Liberia. 205 

is the closing sentence of the Report: "Their past and touching his- 
tory ; tlieir sphere of labor on a continent so benighted, and yet sepa- 
rated from this country only by the Atlantic ; and the residence among 
us of so many of the children of Africa, many of whom are in the 
communion of our churches ; — all seem to direct a large share of the 
missionary strength of our body to be employed hereafter in connec- 
tion with these missions, and in the general field of labor to "which they 
are doors of entrance." 

The Mission of the American Protestant Episcopal Church, in 
Liberia, was regularly commenced in the year 1836, at Cape Palmas. 
It now embraces 6 clergymen, including Bishop Payne. A high school 
has been established for training colonist teachers and missionaries. 
Connected with this school are 5 candidates for orders, 3 of whom are 
natives. The number of youth in this school at present, is 10 ; who 
are supported at the expense of the mission. The children of the col- 
onists, to the number of 15 or 20, are admitted as day scholars. A 
female colonist day school is also in operation, with an attendance of 
45 to 50 children. The mission includes 4 stations, at all of Avhicli 
native boarding-schools are, or have been, maintained with some good 
degree of regularity. The average attendance of scholars here has 
been over 100, and the number instructed in the way of salvation at 
least 1,000. Day-schools are and have been taught, in which many 
heathen children have learned to read, and also acquired that know- 
ledge which maketh wise unto salvation. Sunday-schools, composed 
of boarding scholars, and children from heathen towns, have been 
another means of good. The Gospel has been, and is still, preached 
to nearly the whole Grebo tribe, numbering a population of some 
25,000 ; besides which, a congregation in Maryland, in Liberia, has 
been supplied with stated services. More than 100 have been admitted 
to baptism, or having previously received this rite, been enrolled as 
communicants of the Church. Some of these have apostatized, others 
have died in the faith ; while about 80 still remain members of the 
Church militant. The Grebo dialect has been reduced to writing, and 
many portions of the Scriptures, and other books, published in it. A 
printing press is in operation, from which, besides other publications, a 
small Missionary paper is issued. It should be named, as one of the 
most important fruits of the Mission, that a wide-spread conviction of 
the truth of Christianity has been produced in the native mind, and 
an expectation that, at no distant time, it must supersede the religion 
of the country.* 

Such is the prosperous condition of this mission, that the Rev. John 
Payne, long at its head, was, in 1 850, appointed a Missionary Bishop 
for Africa. He is a white man, highly educated, and eminently quali- 
fied for the sacred office to which he has been chosen. Since entering 

* Report of Bishop Payne, June 6, 1853. 



206 Tlie Missions founded in Liberia. 

upon his duties, the agencies for extending the mission have beeni 
gceatly increased. A station has been commenced at Monrovia, under.' 
tlie care of a colored clergyman, formerly of New York city, whose 
education was finished in England; and a large additional force of 
while missionaries has been sent out to occupy other posts. The 
fnmdation of an Orphan Asylum, to cost ^2,000, has been laid at Cape 
Palmas ; and the funds to erect two church editices have been sup- 
]jlied to the Bishop. Of the white missionaries, one male and one 
female have recently died ; in other respects the prospects of the mis- 
sion are very encouraging. 

Mrs. Payne and one of the other ladies of the mission, have returned 
during the last year, to recruit their health. 

In speaking of the necessity of extended effort in the Republic of 
Liberia, the Bishop makes this important statement : " It is now 
very generally admitted, that Africa must be evangelized chiefly by 
her own children. It should be our object to prepare them, so far as 
Ave may, for their great Avork. And since colonists afford the most ad- 
vanced material for raising up the needed instruments, it becomes 
us, in wise co-operation with Providence, to direct our efibrts in the 
most judicious manner to them. To do this, the most important points 
should be occupied, to become in due time radiating centers of Chris- 
tian influence to Colonists and Natives."* 

The American Christian Missionary Societt, sent a missionary to 
Liberia, in November, 1853. The Christian Church has several of its 
members in that Republic, as Colonists. The missionary now sent is a 
colored man, and Avill not only look after their spiritual interests, but 
attempt the performance of missionary labor in general. His name is 
Alex. Cross ; and he was a slave until within a short time of his 
having been appointed to the mis.sion work. The friends of the cause 
in Kentucky, where he lived, purchased him and offered him to the 
Society — his master generously accepting half his value as a servant. 
His wife and child were free, and accompanied him to Liberia. Mr. 
Cross is a man of more than ordinary talent ; and with such additional 
education as he can obtain at Monrovia, he must make a useful man. 

The Associate Reformed Synod ov the South, have resolved on 
establishing a mission in Liberia ; and have four native boys in the 
course of instruction, at the expense of the Synod, in the school of Mr. 
Krskine, at Kentucky, in Liberia. The Synod entered upon this Avork, 
a ffw years since, Avith earnestness and energy, but have met AA'ith 
many serious obstacles in the accomplishment of their purpose. 

This closes our inquiries into the condition of the missions in Liberia. 
A remark or two, only, need be oti'ered as to its social and civil 

» Report of Bishop Payiu", June 0, 1853. 



The Missions founded in Liberia. 207 

condition. Tlie citizens of the Republic are colored men, and enjoy a 
pcrl'ect equality undur its constitution. They possess all the attributes 
of sovert ignty, enacting and administering their own laws ; but in pur- 
chasing territory from the African kings, the right of sovereignty and 
of soil is acquired, not to exclude the native people from the lands, but, 
as they adopt habits of civilization, to put them in possession of fee 
simple titles to their homes, on the same conditions allowed to the 
colonists. 

By the influence of the colony over the native tribes, and the terms 
of its treaties Avith them, it has abolished human sacrifices, and the 
trials for witchcraft within its jurisdiction ; driven the traffic in slaves 
from more than 600 miles of coast ; exerted a controlling influence in 
suppressing native wars ; and afi"ords protection to 300,000 people, now 
wiiliin its purchased territory, or in treaty with the Republic. 

The history of a single case will illustrate the manner in which Li- 
beria exerts her influence in preventing the native tribes from warring 
upon each other. The territory of Litttle Cape Mount, Grand Cape 
Mount, and Gallinas, was purchased, three or four years since, and 
added to the Republic* The chiefs, by the terms of sale, transferred 
the i-ights of sovereignty and of soil to Liberia, and bound themselves 
to obey her laws. The government of Great Britain had granted to 
Messrs. Hyde, Hodge & Co., of London, a contract for the supply of 
laborers, from the coast of Africa, to the planters of her West India 
colonies. This grant was made under the rule for the substitution of 
cipprentices,\ to supply the lack of labor produced by the emancipation 
of the slaves. The agents of Messrs. Hyde, Hodge & Co., visited 
Grand Cape Mount, and made an oSer of ilO]; per head to the chiefs, 
for each person they could supply as emigrards for this object. The 
offer excited the cupidity of some of the chiefs ; and, to procure the 
emigrants and secure the bounty, one of them, named Boombo, of Lit- 
tle Cape Mount, resorted to war upon several of the surrounding tribes. 
He laid waste the country, burned the towns and villages, captured 
and murdered many of the inhabitants, carried off hundreds of others, 

* The funds for this purpose were supplied as follows: Charles McMicken, 
Esq., of Cincinnati, $5000 ; Solomon Sturges, Esq., of Putnam, Ohio, $1000 ; 
and Samuel Gurney, Esq., of London, England, $5000. 

f This system, in its moral bearings upon the Islands, is little better than 
the old African Slave trade. The disparity in the sexes is fully as great under 
the apprenticeship system, as it was during tlie prevalence of the slave trade, and 
it must be equally as demoralizing. Take, as an example, a few imports of 
apprentices from India and China, for the supply of English planters. The 
cargoes of five vessels, were composed of 1,433 males, 257 females, and bi 
children. 

The practical effect of this system upon Africa, in exciting wars, and carry- 
ing off the male population, is identical with that of the slave trade. See 
President Roberts' letter on that subject in Appendix. 

T This sum is about equal to the price usually paid by the slave traders for 
islaves. 



203 2Vte Missions founded in Liberia. 

and robbed several factories in that region, belonging to merchants of 
Liberia. On the 2Gth of February, 1863, President Huberts issur 1 
his proclamation enjoining a strict observance of the law regulaliitg 
passports, and forbidding the sailing of any vessel, with emigrants, 
without first visiting the port of Monrovia, where each passenger should 
be examined as to his wishes. On i,he first of March the President, 
w^ith 200 men, sailed for Little Cape Mount, arrested Boonibo and 50 
of his followers, summoned a council of the other chiefs at Monrovia for 
his trial on the 14th, and returned home with his prisoners. At the time 
appointed, the trial was held, Boombo was found guilty of " Hi(/h Mis- 
demeanor,'^ and sentenced " to make restitution, restoration, and repa- 
ration of goods stolen, people captured, and damages committed : to 
pay a fine of $500, and be imprisoned for two years."* When the 
sentence was pronounced, the convict shed tears, regarding the ingre- 
dient of imprisonment in his sentence, to be almost intolerable. These 
rigorous measures, adopted to maintain the authority of the Govern- 
ment and majesty of the laws, have had a salutary influence upon the 
chiefs. No outbreaks have since occurred, and but little apprehension 
of danger for the future is entertained. 

The missionaries and teachers in Liberia, are nearly all colored men, 
and citizens of the Republic, who yield a cordial support to its laws, 
and enjoy ample protection under its government. These missionaries 
have the control of the schools and churches ; and, consequently, they 
possess the entire direction of the intellectual, moral, and religious 
traijiing of the youth. Liberia, therefore, may be denominated a Mis- 
sionary liepublic. And such is the influence the colony has exerted 
over the natives, that their heathenish customs and superstitions are 
fast disappearing before the advancing Christian civilizatic>n. In the 
country of Messurado, including the seat of government, there noi 
longer exists a single temple of heathen worship. f 

* African Repository, August, 1853. [See Appendix.] 

+ Ofliccr of U. S. Navy, in Gurley's Report. Vice President llciison also bears 
tho following testimony to an improvement in the cliaracter of tiie natives. 

" It is also gratifying to know tliat the natives are becoming increasingly as- 
similated to us in manners and liabits ; their requisitions for civilized produc- 
tions increase annually; they are seldom satisfied with llie same size and 
(juality of the piece of cloth they wore last year — some of tliem habitually 
wear a pair of pantaloons, shirt or coat, and others all of these at once : anil of 
the thousands that have intercourse with our settlements, and used to glory iu 
their greegree, and were afraid to utter an expression against it, very many of 
them are now ashamed to be seen with a vestige of it about them, and if a par- 
ticle of it sho\ild be about ihem, they Iry to secrete it, and if detected, it is 
with mortitication depicted in their countenances ; they disclaim it, or make 
^oiiie excuse. There is also manifestly, a spirit of commendable comjiotition 
among them throughout the country ; they try to rival each other in many of 
the civilized customs, a pride and ambition tliat I feel sure will never abate 
materially, till they are raised to the perfect level of civilized life, and flow in 
one Common channel with us, civilly and religiously. It is certainly progress- 
ing, and ihouv^h some untoward circumstances may retard its consummation, 
yet nothing shall ultimately prevent it." 



The Missions founded in Liberia. 209 

The religious and educational statistics of Liberia are not complete, 
but are sufficient to show, that the different churches have more than 
2,U00 communicants; the Sabbath-schools more than 1500 children, 
of whom 500 are natives; while in the day-schools there are jiot less 
than 1,400 pupils. 

Of the white missionaries who entered the field in Liberia, during 
the first thirty years of its existence, but two or three remained at the 
close of that period — all the others having died or been disabled by the 
loss of health. Take, as an example, the Episcopal Mission. Twentij 
white laborers, male and female, entered that mission, up to 1849, of 
whom only the Rev. Mr. Payne and his wife, and Dr. Perkins remain- 
ed. All the others had fallen at their posts or been forced to retreat. 
Take that of the Presbyterian Board also: Of nineteen white mission- 
aries, male and female, sent out, up to May, 1851, nine had died, seven 
returned, and three remained; while o1 fourteen colored missionaries, 
male and female, employed, but four have died, and one returned on 
account of ill health. Take the Methodists likewise: Of the thirteen 
white missionaries sent out, six had died, six returned, and one re- 
mained, in 1848; while of thirty-one colored missionaries employed by 
this church, only seven\\^i\. died natural deaths, ?iX\A fo^irteen remained in 
active service. The extent of this mortality among the white mission- 
aries will be comprehended, when it is stated, that their average period 
of life, up to nearly the last named date, has been only two years.* 
The mission work in Liberia, therefore, has necessarily fallen into the 
hands of colored men; and, thus, the Providence of God has afforded 
to that race an opportunity to display their powers, and to show to 
the world what, under favorable circumstances, they are capable of 
achieving. 

In relation to the influence exerted by Liberia, on the cause of 
African Missions, Bishop Scott testifies as follows : 

" In my judgment, the bearing of African Colonization on the cause 
of Christian Missions, in that vast peninsula of darkness and sin, ought 
to be sufficient, in the absence of every other consideration, to secure 
for that great enterprise, the waria and steady support of every lover 
of ChristV'f 

If, then, a Colony of colored men, beginning with less than 100, and 
gradually increasing to 9,000, has, in 30 years, established an Inde- 
pendent Republic amidst a savage people ; destroyed the slave trade 
on 600 miles of the African coast ; put down the heathen temples in 
one of its largest counties ; aftbrded security to all the missions within 
its limits ; and now casts its shield over 300,000 native inhabitants ; 
what may not be done in the next 30 years, by Colonization and Mis- 
sions combined, were sufficient means supplied to call forth all their 
energies ? 

* The details of mortality connected with the Baptist mission, have been given 
full, as an example of the effects of the climate on white missionaries, 
t Letter to the Colonization Herald, October, 1853. 
14 



210 ' The Missions in the EnrfUsh Colonies. 

II. The Missions in the English Colonies of Recaptured Africans. 

These Missions are next in importance, and have been next in sue 
cess, to those of Liberia. The term, recaptured, has reference to tho 
natives rescued from tlie shive-ships, on the coast of Africa, by tlu, 
English squadron. The principal Colony of this class, is at Sierra 
Leone. It was first established as a private enterprise, through the 
exertions of Granville Sharp, afterwards placed luider the control of 
a chartered company, and, finally, taken under the care of the British 
government. It had for its object, chiefly, the suppression of the 
slave trade and the civilization of Africa. 

The origin of this Colony has such an intimate connection with the 
rise of the Anti-Slavery sentiment in England, and the adoption of the 
measures which have done so much toward the redemption of xVfrica, 
that the principal facts of its history must be stated. 

On the 22d of May, 1772, Lord Mansfield decided the memorable 
Somerset case, and pronounced it unlawful to hold a slave in Great 
Britain.* Previous to this date, many slaves had been introducd 
into English families, and, on running away, the fugitives had been 
delivered up to their masters, by order of the Court of King's Bench, 
under Lord Mansfield ; but now the poor African, no longer hunted as 
a beast of prey, in the streets of London, slept under his roof, miser- 
able as it might be, in perfect security. f 

To Granville Sharp belonged the honor of this achievement. By 
the decision, about 400 negroes were thrown upon their own resources. 
They flocked to Mr. Sharp as their patron ; but considering- their num- 
bers, and his limited means, it was impossible lor him to afford them 
adequate relief. To those thus emancipated, others, discharged from 
the army and navy, Avere afterwards added, who, b}^ their improvi- 
dence, were reduced to extreme distress. After much reflection, Mr. 
Sharp determined to colonize them in Africa. 

Here, then, was first conceived the idea of African colonization ; 
but this benevolent scheme could not be executed at once, and the 
blacks — indigent, unemployed, despised, forlorn, vicious — became such 
nuisances, as to make it micessary they should be sent somewhere, 
and no longer suffered to infest the streets of London.]; Private be- 
nevolence could not be sufficiently enlisted in their behalf, and fifteen 
years passed away, when Government, an.xious to remove what it re- 
garded as injurious, at last came to the aid of Mr. Sharp, and supplied 
llie means of their transportation and support. § 

« " Immemorial usage preserves a positive law, after the occasion or accident 
wliicli gave rise to it, lias been forgotten; and tracing the subject to natural 
principle.s, the claim of slavery never can be supported. The power claimed 
never was in use here, or acknowledged by the law. Upon the whole, we can 
not say tlie cause relurneil is snflicieiit by tlie law; and therefore the mau must 
be di^char'^cd." — Close of Lnril Mans/it Id's drnsuiii in the SuvurgrI case. 

t Clurksou's History of the shivc trade, i Wadslrom, page 5220. 

^ MemoirH of Granville Sharj). 



The Missions in the luvglish 211 

In April, 1787, these colored people, numbering over 400, were put 
on shipboard for Africa, and, in the following month, were landed in 
Sierra Leone. A plentiful supply of rum had been furnished, and, for 
reasons unexplained, they were accompanied by 60 whites, most of 
whom were females of the worst character.* Intemperance and de- 
bauchery so generally prevailed, during the voyage, that nearly one 
lialf of them died on the passage and within four months after land- 
ing. The sickness of their chaphain, the deaths of their agents, and 
the consequent desertions of the emigrants, reduced the Colony, during 
the first year, to 40 persons, and endangered its existence. The next 
year, 39 new emigrants arrived, with abundant supplies, and the de- 
serters returned, so as to secure a force of 130 persons to the Colony. 
During the following year, internal discord, succeeded by an attack 
from a native chief, dispersed the colonists throughout the country ; 
and, again, through Mr. Sharp's exertions, an agent was sent to their 
relief, who collected them together, and furnished arms for their 
defense. 

In March, 1792, a reinforcement of 1,131 blacks, from Nova Scotia, 
arrived at Sierra Leone. These men were fugitive slaves, who had 
joined the English during the American Revolutionary war, and had 
been promised lands in Nova Scotia ; but the government having failed 
to meet its pledge, and the climate proving unfavorable, they sought 
refuue in Africa. A fever which had attacked the emigrants in Hali- 
fax, and from which 65 had died on the passage, still prevailed among 
them after landing ; so that, from its effects, tooether with the influence 
of the climate, 130 more died the first year in Sierra Leone. 

About this time the Colony passed from the care of Mr. Sharp, to 
that of the Company. This led to the sending of 119 whites, along 
with a Governor, as counselors, physicians, soldiers, clerks, overseers, 
artificers, settlers, and servants. Of this company 57 died within the 
year, 22 returned, and 40 remained. f 

As soon as health would permit, the Nova Scotia fugitives proceeded 
to work vigorously, in clearing lands and building houses ; and, in the 
succeeding year, two chuixhes were erected, and a school of 300 pupils 
established. 

These fugitives must have been men of more than ordinary energy 
of character. This opinion is sustained by the subsequent events of 
their history. When the French fleet, in 1794, burned their houses 
and destroyed their property, it was but a short time until the Colony 
Avas again in a prosperous condition. But their physical energy and 
industry, were not their most remarkable characteristics. When Gran- 
ville Sharp's mild system of government, admitting colored men to 
share in its administration, was superseded by the more rigid laws of 
the Company, which excluded them from office, they resisted the 
change. Though, in America, they had fought on the side of Britain, 

*"VVadstrom, page 221, f Wadstrom. 



212 Colonies of Mecajyturcd Africayis. 

in Africa, they espoused the cause of Republican principles. Their 
disappointment in not receiving the promised lands in Nova Scotia, had 
given them no very favorable opinion of English justice. When re- 
quired to submit to the authority of the Governor, and to a ditlerent 
policy from what they had embraced on emigrating, they denied they 
owed subjection to the new laws, or to any laws except of their own 
enactment. Ascertaining that the legal powers of the Company were 
inadequate to the enforcement of its authority, they boldly asserted 
their claim to the sovereignty, and their right to exclude from the ad- 
ministration all but officers of their own choice. Parliament, on learn- 
ing the posture of affairs, at once granted the Company ample powers 
to extinguish this little blaze of Democracy ; but the Colonists as reso- 
lutely determined to resist; and, on September 10th, 1800, announced 
their purpose of assuming all political power in the settlement. The 
Governor, left in the minority, had to employ the natives to aid him. 
As the insurgents refused all accommodation, there was no alternative 
but a resort to force. At this moment, 550 Maroons, (free negroes,) 
from Jamaica,* were landed ; and, joining the Governor, lie was 
enabled to defeat the rebels. Three of the leaders in this struggle 
were taken and afterwards executed ; and so well plejxsed was Parlia- 
ment, at seeing Democracy cut up by the roots, that it voted the Gov- 
enor §105,000, to erect a fortiiication and aid in paying the Company's 
debts. 

Two subsequent attacks by the natives, together with the urgent 
appeals of the Company, led the Government, the first of January, 
1808, to assume the sovereignty over the Colony, and provide for its 
safety. This measure was the more agreeable to Granville Sharp and 
the Company, as he had sunk $7,000 and it $410,000 in the enter- 
pi-ise. The arrangement was equally necessary to England, as, in that 
year, she rendered herself illustrious by the abolition of the slave 
trade ; and needed Sierra Leone to carry on her operations, and to pro- 
vide fur the slaves she might rescue from the traders. 

Missions for the benefit of this Colony, were fir.st attempted in 1792, 
again in 1795, and in 1797; but all these eflbrts failed; because of 
the disaffection of the Nova Scotia fugitives, and because the slave 
trade, then a legal traffic to British subjects, was prosecuted every- 
where upon the African coast, and even within Sierra Leone. In 1804, 
the Church Missionary Society sent out its missionaries, with orders to 
seek for stations out of the colony, because of the opposition within it ; 
but in this they did not succeed. In 1808, when the .slave trade was 
abolished, these missionaries commenced ten stations beyond the limits 
of tlie Colony, according to their instructions, but were unable to sus- 
tain them. Tlie natives, interested in the slave trade, burned the rais- 
Bion houses and churches, destroyed the growing crops of the 

• Thoy had first gone to Nova Scotia, froiu whence they sailed to Sierra Leone. 



The Missions in the English 213 

missionaries, threatened their lives, and otherwise persecuted them. 
When England abandoned the traffic in slaves, she but surrendered its 
monopoly to France, Spain and Portugal ; hence, there was no diminu- 
tion of its extent, or abatement of its horrors, but a vast increase of 
botli :* and, as the missions from 1792 to 1808, failed both in and out 
of the Colony ; so the continuance of the trade, beyond its limits, after 
1808, drove the missionaries within its jurisdiction, to enjoy its pro- 
tection. But these stations were not abandoned, luitil after a long 
striio-gle to sustain them — the last one having been maintained until 
1818. 

From 1808, the work of missions in Sierra Leone, was successfully 
begun ; and the first dawn of hope for oppressed Africa, arose with 
the first blow aimed at the slave-trade. Up to this date, the slave- 
trader had held undisputed sway on the coast of Africa, and the intro- 
duction of the Gospel was impossible. The slave-trade, it would seem, 
is an evil so horrid, that the Almighty refused to give success to the 
missionary, unless that outrage upon humanity should first be sup- 
pressed. 

The Episcopal mission, established in Sierra Leone, in 1808, has 
been continued without interruption, except what necessarily ai'ose from 
the great mortality among the missionaries. A college and several 
schools were established at an early day, in which orphan and destitute 
children were boarded and instructed. f Besides teaching the schools, 
the missionaries preached to the adults, a few of whom embraced the 
Gospel ; but no very encouraging progress was made for many years. 
In 1817, however, the labors expended began to unfold their effects, 
and the mission to make encouraging advances ; so that^ by 1 832, it 
had 638 communicants and 294 candidates in its churches, 684 Sabbath 
school scholars, and 1,388 pupils in its day-schools. 

Thus, in 45 years after the founding of Sierra Leone, and 24 after 
the abohtion of the slave-trade, was the basis of this mission broadly 
and securely laid. Since that period it has been extended eastward to 
Badagry, Abbeokuta, and Lagos. In connection with all these mis- 
sions, but chiefly in Sierra Leone, the Episcopal Church, in 1850, had 
54 seminaries and schools, 6,600 pupils, 2,183 communicants, and 
7,500 attendants on public worship. Of the teachers in the schools at 
Sierra Leone, it is worthy of remark, that only five were Europeans, 
while fifty-six were native Africans. Such is the prosperous condition 
of these missions, at present, and the amount of superintendency they 
require, that the Rev. Mr. Vidal has been ordained a Bishop for West 
Africa, and sent forth to his field of labor. 



*See Part 1st, on African Colonization, and Part 2nd, the Relations of Free 
Labor to Slave Labor, for the main facts in relation to the increase of the Slave- 
trade. 

t It does not appear that the Nova Scotia fugitives sent their chiidren to 
these Schools. 



^'14 Colonics of Becajjf.urcd Africans. 

The Eno-lish ^Vesleyan Methodists, through the influence of the Rev. 
Or. Coke, sent a missionary, in 1811, to the Nova Scotia free bh^chs, in 
Sierra Leone ; and, in the course of a year, the converts were reported 
it CO.* In 1831, tioenty years after tlie commencement of the mission, 
it included but 2 missionaries, 294 church members, and about IGO 
pupils in its schools. The Wesleyan Mission, like the Episcopal, pro- 
gressed slowly at first; but, as it collected the elements of progress 
.vithiu its bosom, it also, began to expand, and is now advancing pros- 
]jerously. Its stations have been extended westward to the Gambia, 
md eastward to various points, including Cape Coast Castle, Badagry, 
Abbeokuta, and Kumasi. In connection with these missions, theWes- 
'eyan Methodists, in 1850, had 44 chapels, 13 out-stations, 42 day- 
schools, 97 teachers, 4,500 pupils, including those in the Sabbath 
schools, 6,000 communicants, on trial 560, and 14,600 attendants on 
public worship. 

But these colonies of Recaptured Africans, are too important an 
agency in the redemption of Africa, to be passed over without farther 
consideration ; so that their position and that of Liberia, in this respect, 
may be clearly comprehended. In addition to Sierra Leone, they in- 
clude several minor stations ; two of which are on the Gambia, and 
the others on the coast east of Liberia. 

From documents presented to Parliament, it appears, that, in 1850, 
there was a Christian population, in Sierra Leone, of mere than 36,000, 
out of about 45,000. In this population, it wms estimated, that there 
were representatives of no fewer than one hundred diilerent tribes, 
speaking different languages and dialects ; so that there are already 
converts prepared, as far as the knowledge of the languages is con- 
cerned, to go forth in every direction, and to explain to their country- 
men, in their own tongue, the truths of revelation. Since the subject 
w^as before Parliament, Bishop Vidal has commenced his labors, and 
this question has received particular attention. It has been ascertained 
that no fewer than 151 distinct languages, besides several dialects, are 
spoken in Sierra Leone. They have been arranged under 26 groups ; 
but there still remain 54 unclassified, wdiich are more distinct from 
each other, and from all the rest, than the languages of Europe are 
from one another ; thus unfolding to the view of the Christian philan- 
thropist, an agency, in the course of preparation, which, under Divine 
Providence, may carry the Gospel to the imnumbered millions of im- 
mortal souls inhabiting the continent of Africa. 

A few facts will show that this is not an idle speculation, but that 
she has successfully entered upon her great mission. 

» Allhoucrh lli06e Nova Srotia frro blacl^s, — or ratlicr these American fugitive 
Blaves, — liad gmie to work so freely at first, in biiilcliiiLr churches and establish- 
iuj^ schools, nothing farther is luard of them, in \hv history of missions, until 
the Wesleyaus, IB years afterwards, iimlertoolc their spiritual oversight. Their 
faihiru in securing the civil privileges for "whicli they took up arms, seems to 
Lave jil.iced them in a po.sition of antagonism to the English Church. 



The Missions in the English 215 

Among' the Recaphired Africans introduced into Sierra Leone, and 
brought under the civilizing influences of its Christian institutions, none 
have made such rapid progress as the people of Yoruba, a country lying 
eastward of the kingdom of Dahomey. Their first appearance in the 
Colony was about 1822. Many of them soon acquired a considerable 
amount of intelligence and a little property. In 1839, they had be- 
come quite numerous, and a party of them purchased a vessel, hired 
a white captain, and commenced a traffic with Badagry. This town 
is at a point on the coast from which the Yoruba country can be most 
easily reached. The trade thus begun soon led to a rapid emigration 
from Sierra Leone, and the planting of missions at both Badagry and 
Abbeokuta, the capital of Yoruba. 

Abbeokuta is a walled city, founded in 1825, from the fragments of 
the tribes of the kingdom of Yoruba, who escaped the invading armies 
of the Fellatahs, while this powerful people were the principal "slave 
hunters" for the traders of the western coast of Africa. It contains 
the remains of 130 towns, and at present embraces a population of 
nearly 100,000. Badagry, in 1850, contained about 11,000 inhab- 
itants. The Sierra Leone emigrants, at the former city, numbered 
three thousand, and, at the latter, several hundred. At the period 
when the emigration commenced, and for several years afterward, the 
slave-trade prevailed on the coast ; and the people of Badagry and 
Abbeokuta were engaged in supplying the market with slaves. This 
led them to wage frequent wars, and kept up feelings of hostility 
throughout the country. In these slave hunts, the people of Lagos 
bore a conspicuous part. This town is about 36 miles to the eastward 
of Badagry, is large and populous, and had hitherto been the head- 
quarters of the slave-trade in the Bight of Benin. The river Ossa, a 
lagoon, running parallel with the coast, unites these two places. 

The Episcopal Mission at Sierra Leone, sent an exploring committee 
to Abbeokuta in 1842, and early in 1845 its first missionaries landed 
at Badagry. In both instances they found the Wesleyans in advance 
of them. Being unable to reach Abbeokuta, on account of existing 
wars, a mission was founded at Badagry. In 1846, a noted slave 
dealer of the coast, forced the warring tribes to cease hostilities, that 
he might collect his slaves from the interior ; and the missionaries, 
embracing this moment of peace, were enabled to reach Abbeokuta. 

Among the Episcopal Missionaiies, was the Rev. Samuel Ci-owther, 
a native of Yoruba, who had been captured by the Fellatahs, in 1821, 
and sold to the traders at Lagos. Shipped on board a slaver for Bra- 
zil, recaptured by an English cruizer, educated at Sierra Leone, or- 
dained to the m.inistry of the Gospel in England, he had now returned, 
after twenty-five years of sanctified captivity, to proclaim the way of 
salvation to his relatives and countrymen ; and he had the inexpressi- 
ble gratihcalion of finding his mother and two sisters, soon after his 
arrival, and of being instrumental in her conversion to Christianity. 

The chiefs of Abbeokuta received the missionaries with kindness; 



216 Colonies of Recaptured Africans. 

and, no wonder, as some of them had relatives of their own, sitting by 
them, who had been Uberated by the Enghsh. 

With the favorable regard of the chiefs, and the co-operation of 
many of the emigrants from Sierra Leone, the Gospel, for a time, had 
free course in Abbeokuta ; and its population listened with a willing 
ear to the offers of eternal hfe. But, in 1848, the native priests, 
priestesses, and slave-catchers, stirred up a spirit of persecution against 
the converts, and the Gospel was greatly hindered. This persecution 
continued, with some intervals in its violence, throughout the two suc- 
ceeding years. In January, 1831, the British consul, Mr Beecroft, 
visited Abbeokuta, and his presence had a salutary effect in overawing 
the enemies of Christianity, and disposing the chiefs to abandon the 
slave-trade. He gave them notice, also, that the king of Dahomey 
had projected an attack upon their city, in his next campaign for cap- 
turino- slaves, and that his Amazons had doomed it to destruction. 

Thtis warned, the walls were somewhat repaired, and the population 
roused to a sense of their danger ; when, on March 3d, 1851, the Da- 
homian army, of 10,000 men and 6,000 women, made an assault upon 
the city. Abbeokuta had only 8,000 warriors to oppose this force ; 
but many of its women ran to and fro, amidst the flying bullets, Avith 
food and water for the soldiers on the walls, that they might remain at 
their posts to fight for life and liberty. For six long houi's the mur- 
derous strife continued, when the Dahoniians began to waver, and the 
Abbeokutans, rushing out, put them to flight ; and, pressing closely 
on their rear, continued the slaughter until darkness led them to return. 
At early dawn the pursuit was renewed, and, at seventeen miles dis- 
tance, another battle ensued in which the Abbeokutans were again 
victorious. The loss of the Dahomians was 3,000 killed and 1,000 
taken prisoners. Of the slain nearly 1,800 were left before the walls 
of Abbeokuta. These were the flower of the enemy's army, chiefly 
women, who are always placed foremost in the battles, as more reliable 
than the men.* 

Thus was Abbeokuta and its missionaries mercifully delivered from 
destruction. Even the heathen openly acknowledged that they owed 
the victory to the God of the Christians ; and all felt that the mission- 
aries were their truest friends.f 

*" Abbeokuta, or Sunrise in the Tropics." 

+ " Where are yonr cliarms?" said a Mohammedan chief, xnulcr whoni part 
of the Christian converts founjht at^ainst tlic Dalioniians. "You will all be 
liilled." " We have no charms," was the sim])le re])ly, "but our failli in tlie 
■Jfon of God, who died for .sinners." A watcliful eye was kept upon them in 
/he field of battle, for it was said that Christianity was making women of 
them; but they acquitted themselves like men: so much so, as to gain the 
praise even of those wlio persecuted them; and tlie result showed that it was 
possible to be brave, and yet Christian, and to escape the risks of battle with- 
out amulets. — Cliiirrh Manxinnari/ Iiitc'lii/nircr, Oct. 1^.')H. 

When, in the midst of the battle, another chief, addressing one of the con- 
verts, exclaimed: "Ah, Kashi, if all fouf^ht like you, they might follow what 
religion they like." — "Sunrise in the Tropica." 



The Missions in the English 217 

In November, following, Capt. Forbes, of her Majesty's navy, Avas 
commissioned to negotiate treaties with the authorities of Abbcokuta. 
He found but little difficulty in persuading the cliiefs to sign a treaty 
for the abolition of the slave-trade and Iniman sacrifices — enorznities 
which had extensively prevailed — and for the extension of the missions 
into the interior, and the toleration of religion. Having taken witli 
him several cannon, he planted them on the walls of the city, and 
taught some of the citizens how to use them. 

The mission in Abbeokuta, being thus freed from embarrassment, is 
prospering, and the missionaries are extending their operations to the 
neighboring towns. It would seem, indeed, as if the whole of the 
Yoruba territory were bidding the missionary welcome, and encouraging 
him onwai'd in the work of its evangelization.* The Gospel, it is true, 
still meets Avith opposition ; but the chiefs, mostly, are friendly and send 
their children to the schools. Open persecution is no longer permitted ; 
and, but for the continual apprehension of another attack from Dahomey, 
the missionaries would seem to be secured against farther interruptions. 

But while the missions are prosperous at Abbeokuta, far ditierent 
have been the results at Badagry. The events that have transpired 
at the two places, have also been very different. Akitoye, the lawful 
king of Lagos, was driven away in 1845, and fled first to Abbeokuta 
and then to Badagry. Kosoko, the usurper, being in league with the 
king of Dahomey, engaged largely in the slave-trade and kept up con- 
stant wars on the neighboring towns. Some of the chiefs at Badagry 
espoused the cause of Akitoye, while others resolved to support Kosoko. 
Akitoye was friendly to the missions and attended the Sabbath-school 
and preaching ; but his opponents were the enemies of the missionaries 
and engaged in the slave-trade. In June, 1851, Kosoko and his party 
attacked Akitoye, in Badagry, and for two days the demons of cruelty, 
rapine, and murder, reigned triumphant in the town ; and only left it 
when it was reduced to ruins. Fire and sword had done their utmost 
on Badagry ; and nothing escaped the devouring element but the two 
mission premises, and the chief part of the English trading house. 
During the remainder of the year, all was confusion and ruin. The 
Abbeokutans sent 800 men to the aid of Akitoye, and by one party or 
the other, the towns along the Ossa were destroyed without mercy. 

It is worthy of remark, that at Badagry, as at Sierra Leone, the mis- 
sion made no progress while the population were engaged in the slave- 
trade. Neither of the three Episcopal missionaries, who labored in Bad- 
agry, either alone or conjointly, were permitted to see any satisfactory 
fruit of their spiritual labors. -j- The town yet remains nearly in ruins 
— a few of the inhabitants, only, having returned and rebuilt their 
houses. Lac:os, therefore, was selected as the head-quarters of the 
mission, and Badagry reduced to an out-station, with only a catechist. 

* Church Missionary Intelligencer, June, 1853. 
f Abbeokuta, or Sunrise in the Tropics. 



218 Colonies of Recaptured Africans. 

The treaty between the chiefs of Abbeokuta and Captain Forbes, 
u-#und them to promote the interests of the missions, and to abolish 
t)ie slave-trade. It secured to them, in turn, the protection of Eng- 
land. But Kosoko, of Lagos, and his confederates, resolved to ])rcvi.nt 
the introduction of Christianity, civilization and legitimate traffic into 
that region, to destroy Abbeokuta, and to persevere in the slave-trade. 
The British squadron, therefore, having found its efforts by sea, to sup- 
press the traffic, altogether unavailing, and t(j save its ally, Abbeokuta, 
from destruction, proceeded to Lagos, December, 1851, bombarded the 
town, took it in possession, dethroned Kosoko, and restored Akitoye to 
his rightful possessions. So imminent was the danger to Abbeokuta, 
that Kosoko had marched at the head of a large army to destroy it, 
and was only diverted from his purpose by the attack upon his capital. 
The Portuguese slave-dealers were immediately expelled, and thus, for 
the moment, the slave-trade was suppressed in the Bight of Benin. 

But the hateful slave-trade, of which Lagos had long been the chief 
mart, had thoroughly engrained itself in the thoughts, habits, and 
hearts of the people. Taught by the slave-dealer to consider the English 
as natural enemies, they only awaited a suitable opportunity to renew a 
trade so lucrative as the capture and sale of their fellow men. Accord- 
ingly, about nine months after the expulsion of Kosoko, the Portuguese 
traders returned and secretly renewed the traffic in slaves. Akitoye, 
faithful to his treaty with the English, interposed his authority for its sup- 
pression. This led to an insurrection against him and for the restoraiion of 
Kosoko. The Portuguese supplied the insurgents with arms and ammu- 
nition ; and, on the morning of August 6th, 1853, the Avar commenced in 
the streets of Lagos. The contest was kept up till night, many were killed 
and wounded on both sides, and the greater part of the town destroyed 
by fire. One of the mission houses was consumed, with nearly all of 
its contents ; and the other would have shared the same fate, but for 
the protection afibrded by the army of Akitoye, and by Capt. Gardner, 
of the British navy, then in port with his vessel. A cessation of hos- 
tilities took place for a few days, during which Kosoko entered the 
town and joined the rebels. The xmion of his forces with theirs, gave 
him a great superiority over Akitoye ; and the missionaries, and the 
English consul, had no other expectation but that they would all be 
murdered. At this critical moment. Admiral Bruce, with a part of 
his squadron, appeared in sight, landed nine gun-boats, well manned, 
and sent a detachment of marines to protect the missionaries. This 
alarmed Kosoko, and, on the night following, August 13, he and his 
allies stole out of Lagos. Thus was the mission once more providen- 
tially delivered from destruction.* 

On the 2d of September, King Akitoye died suddenly, and his son, 
Dosumu, was elected in his stead. How far he may be able or willing 
to resist tlio renewal of the slave-trade remains to be seen. The 



* Church Mi^•sionaI•y Iiitolligcnccr, December, 1853. 



Tlie Missions in the EnrjUsh 219 

missionaries, at the latest advices, were greatly discouraged, being 
■worn down with fatigue and anxiety, and almost shut out from the hope 
of planting the Gospel in Lagos, as it has been done in Abbeokuta. 

These important movements show how the English Colonies are oper- 
ating as agencies in extending civilization and the Gospel in Africa ; 
and how the Providence of God is overruling the wicked actions of 
men for the advancement of the kingdom of Christ. 

But while we present these cheering evidences of the success of the 
missions in this lield, we would call attention to an important dif- 
ference in the results here and in Liberia. Sierra Leone and Liberia 
were founded with similar objects in view : the removal of a class of 
persons unhappily situated, the improvement of their condition, the 
civilization of Africa, and the suppression of the slave-trade. Li both 
cases the colonies Avere founded in the midst of barbarous tribes ; and 
with men but recently escaped or liberated from the bonds of slavery. 
Sierra Leone received her emigrants nearly all at once ; while Liberia 
was more than ten years in obtaining an equal number. With the ex- 
ception of the few survivors of the London expedition, the settlers in 
both colonies had the same early training, under the slavery of Virginia, 
Maryland, and the Carolinas. Up to 1800, the emigrants to Sierra 
Leone had been enlightened men, mostly from the same region which, 
subsequently, supplied to Liberia her citizens. From that period, the 
population of Sierra Leone has been increased, not by additions of civil- 
ized men,* but first by the Maroons, and afterward by natives intro- 
duced by the English cruizers ; until, at present, sixty-six years from 
the founding of the colony, it includes 45,000 people, reckoned subjects 
of Great Britain. With the exception of a few recaptured slaves 
landed in Liberia, by American cruizers, its population, each succeed- 
ing year from the first, has received accessions of civilized men, who 
have won the confidence of the surrounding tribes, added them to their 
communities, instructed them in the arts of civilization, allowed them 
the benefits of their schools, and a participation in civil affairs ; until, 
at present, thirty-three years after the commencement of the colony, it 
includes 80,000 people, recognized citizens of the Republic. 

Now, mark the difierence : in 66 years, Sierra Leone, aided by a 
large naval squadron, has grown into a British Colony of 45,000 
subjects ; while, in 33 years, or half the time, Liberia, with an in- 
flux of only 1,044 recaptured Africans, has become a Republic of 
80,000 citizens. f 

As to the success of the Missions in the two colonies, accurate sta- 
tistics are not at hand ; but from what has been stated, it appears that 

* Capt. Paul CufFee, a wealthy colored man of Boston, in 1815, took out 38 
emigrants to Sierra Leone. 

t The whole population on the present enlarged territory of Liberia, is esti- 
mated at 300.000 ; but the pai'tlj civilized population, called citizens, is only 
60,000. 



2-!0 Colonies of Recaptured Africans. 

for the first 30 yenvs of ihc-ir existence, the increase in Liberi;i has 
b(.(.'n mure lluin double that in Sierra Leone. 

^N iih these facts before us, it becomes a matter of great moment to 
determine what has been tlie cause of the difference iu the prosperity 
of the two Colonies. It can not bo attributed to any great inequality 
between their emigrants, as, mostly, they had an identity of origin ; 
nor to any great difference among the natives, as the diversity of lan- 
guages in the one, would be balanced by the greater degradation of 
the other.* Then, as there was, originally, no material difference in 
their populations, the greater success of the citizens of Liberia, in 
niaintaininLj their civil and reliiiious institutions, can not be a result of 
their attainments under the slavery of the United States, but must be 
a consequence of their intellectual advancement after reaching the 
Colony. Neither can the cause of the difference be found in the edu- 
cational and religious institutions of the two Colonies, as these ai'e iden- 
tical in both. The difference, therefore, can exist, only, in the greater 
extent of the social and civil privileges which the Liberians have en- 
joyed in their form of government. Look at the facts. From the time 
Sierra Leone passed out of the hands of Granville Sharp, the colored 
people have been excluded from participating in the government. The 
offices have been filled with white men, who I'eside among the negroes, 
in the position and attitude of a superior race, born to command ; 
while the colonists are made to feel that their destiny is to obey: hence, 
in prosecuting their education, the youth of that Colony have had their 
mental powei's dwarfed, by the absence of the stimulants which the 
hope of social and political advancement afford. Li Liberia tiie policy 
lias been the reverse. From the beginning, the minor offices were held 
by the colored men ; and lor the past twelve years, no white man has 
held any office, civil or military, in the Colony. Thus, the posts of 
honor have been open to the competition of every Liberian ; and, 
catching the progressive spirit of the age, the colonists have aspired to 
the dignity of Nationality ; have established an Independent Republic ; 
and have progressed, in their civil and religious relations, with a ra- 
pidity doubly as great as Sierra Leone. ■}■ 



* The native population, along the coast, arc found to be more degraded than 
lliose of tlie interior. 

+ Bishop Amks, at the anniversary meeting of our Missionary Society, held 
in Cincinnati, lb53, paid the following just compliment to tlic Republic of Li- 
beria : — 

"iS'alions reared under religious and political restraint arc not capable of self- 
government, while those who enjoy only partially these advantages have set an 
example of such capability. We liave in illustration of this a well-authenticalcd 
liistorical fact : we refer to the colored jjeople of tliis country, Avlio, thougli thry 
liave grown >ip under the most unfavorable circiunstances, were enabled to suc- 
ceed in establisliing a sound republican government in Africa. Tliey have 
given the most cle:ir and indubitalile evidence of their cap;".l)ility of self-gov 
eminent, and in this respei't have shown a higher grade of manhood tlian the 
polished Frenchman himself." — Methodist Mis. Ads. 



'The Missions among the Xative Tribes, 221 

But time ■will not allow \is to exlend our comparisons. The superi- 
ority of the free institutions of Liberia, as an agency for overcoming 
the obstacles to civilization and Cliristianity in Africa, -will be farther 
noticed in the progress of our investigations. At present we need only 
say, in relation to both Colonies, that, as the result of English and 
American philanthropy, there is now a line of coast of more than 
1,8(J0 miles, from the Gambia on the West, to Lagos on the East, where 
the slave-trade is suppressed, and Christianity is introduced ; and, that 
within this region, once the undisputed empire of the slave-trader, 
theie are now 30,000 attendants on public worship, 10,300 church 
members, 152 schools, 13,600 pupils, and a band of teachers, nearly 
all of whom are natives or Liberians. 

Such are the i-esuks within these Colonies, where the missionaries 
have enjoyed the protection of Government, and the aid of civilized 
colored men ; such are the fruits of the English and American Coloni- 
zation of the African race on the soil of their Father-land ; and such 
the prospects of the moral redemption of the people of that continent, 
by the return of its captive sons, bearing in their hands the lamp of 
the Gospel. 

in. The 3fissions araovg the Xative Tribes, beyond the Injluence and 
Protection of the Colonies. 

A full history of these missions, including the facts illustrative of 
the obstacles to the progress of Christianity, where the restraints of 
civil government are not felt by the population, would be of thrilling 
interest. But this would require a volume. We must limit ourselves 
to two or three ; and shall hrst direct attention to those of the Ameri- 
can Board on the Gaboon, in West Africa, and among the Zulus, in 
South Africa. 

The first of these missions was begun in 1834, at Cape Palraas; but 
owing to mistaken impressions in relation to the influence of the Colo- 
nies on the work, it was removed, in 1842, to the Gaboon, 1200 miles 
eastward. On entering this region, the missionary, the Rev. J. L. 
Wilson, encouraged by the attention of the chiefs, entertained such 
hopes of success, as to lead the Board to send additional missionaries 
to [lis aid. Some of the native converts at Cape Palmas, accompany- 
ing him to the Gaboon, served as a nucleus for a church at the new 
station. But on trial, the difficulties inherent in African heathenism 
were found to be much more perplexing and insurmountable, in his 
new tield, than those he left behind in his old one. 

The Report of the Board for 1850, says: "There is yet but one 
Church in the mission, and this contains 22 membei-s, 1 1 of whom 
were received on profession of their faith, in 1849 — a greater number 
than have been received in all the years since the removal of the mission 
to the Gaboon. Here, as in South Africa, the habit of taking many wives, 
or rather concubines, operates as a great hindrance to the Gospel ; and 



L'-li Beyond the Injluence and Protection of the Colonics. 

the evil is mucli aggravated by the late free introduction of American 
Kuni, which has exerted a, most pernicious influence all along the 
coast." 

A k-tter from the Rev. Mr. Wilson, of March, 1851, draws a still 
more discouraging picture of the prospects of the mission : " In some < 
respects," he says, "our missionary operations seem to be quite sta- 
tionary. We have had no accessions to our church for some time 
past ; and some who were added last year, do not give us all the satis- 
faction we had hoped for. If we liad other converts, we should be 
almost afraid to receive them into the church, by reason of the man}^ 
temptations to which they are exposed ; growing out of the loose and 
perverted state of morals in this community. Nor do we see how soci- 
ety can be placed on such a footing, as to make it possible for us to 
organize a pure Church, until there is a general outpouring of God's 
Spirit upon, the people." Then, depicting the general prevalence of 
polygamy, or what is worse, Mr. Wilson thus concludes : " Demoraliz- 
ing as this state of society is, the people are, nevertheless, tirmly at- 
tached to it, and will continue to be so, until they are inspired with 
better and purer feelings by the Holy Ghost." 

Dr. Ford, another member of this mission, in an appeal for more 
female laborers, draws a still darker portraiture of the deep moral 
degradation existinj; around him. " The condition of African women 
is beyond description deplorable. No one can appreciate it without 
seeing it. They are bought and sold, whipped, worked, and despised. 
Unquestionably they become surly, malicious, and perverse ; and under 
the detestable system of polygamy which prevails everywhere, they 
are perfectly faithless to their husbands. They are our most bitter 
enemies, bearing a great dislike to religion, and this they communicate 
to their children. 

The Report for 1851, speaks more encouragingly, though it records 
no increase of members. The Report for 1852, shows that the misj-ion 
stood thus : 4 stations, 6 missionaries, 1 physician, 4 female assistants, 
5 native helpers, and 5 schools with about 100 pupils. One member 
had been added during the year, two Christian marriages solemnized, 
and four persons baptized. A considerable reduction of the mission- 
ary force had occurred during the year, from deaths and the failure of 
health ; so that only two of the stations had been sustained during the 
whole year. The Report for 1853, records no new admissions to the 
church. Only two ordained missionaries were left in the mission, and 
only two stations have been occupied since July.* It is remarked, that 
thuugh the intelligence from the mission " is less cheering in some re- 
sj)ects tlian we might wish, in others it is satisfactory and encouraging. 
'J'wo things, however, are greatly needed. The converting energy of 
the Spirit is a constant and palpable necessity ; and tlie mission slmuld 
be largely reinforced without delay. Who will cry mightily unto the 

•Missionary Herald, January, 1854. 



Tlie Missions amovff the Xatlve Trihcs, 22o 

Lord for his quickening grace ? Who \vill devote themselves to the 
missionary work among- the beniglited children of Africa?" * 

Mr. Preston has settled 60 miles above the Baraka station, which is 
near the mouth of the Gaboon, to study the Pangwe language, and to 
explore the hill country ; where the mission has been directed to 
establish a new station, on account of its greater healthiness, and to 
operate among the Pangwe people. He has found the country dis- 
turbed by wars, and that the Pangwe tribe are cannibals. Prisoners of 
war and persons condemned for witchcraft, had been eaten, to Mr. 
Preston's own knowledge. Such things, he says, are of frequent oc- 
currence ; and yet these people work very neatly in- iron of their own 
smelting, and in brass obtained from traders — thus affording evidences 
of a nearer approach to civilization than the tribes on the coast. 

Though the progress of this mission has been slow, and but few con- 
verts have been gathered into the church ; yet the labors of the mis- 
sionaries have, by no means, been unproductive of good results. The 
native languages have been mastered, portions of the scriptures trans- 
lated into them, and the pupils in their schools will soon be able to read 
the sacred word, to their parents and friends, in their native tongue. 

The Rev. Mr. Wilson, the founder of this mission, has been obliged 
to retire from the work, on account of ill health. At the meeting of 
the American Board, in 1852, he was present, explained the condition 
of the mission, its encourao-ements and discouragements, and uroed an 
extended effort to take advantage of the present friendly disposition of 
the natives to o-ain footholds for schools and churches throunhout the 
country. In relation to the discouragements, he said, that in penetrat- 
ing the interior, they found the difficulty of traveling very great; — their 
progress being embarrassed by the want of an organized government. 
They were thus exposed to the attacks of robbers and marauders, who 
might kill them without being amenable to any power on earth. 

From these facts it would seem, that Civil Government is greatly 
needed for the protection of the Gaboon Mission ; and, that instead of 
its being considered an obstacle, as was the case at Cape Palmas, it 
is now viewed as necessary to its success : and, if necessary at the 
Gaboon, it must be equally so in all other parts of Africa. 

If this view were generally admitted, a great impulse would be given 
to our system of African Colonization. Civil government has not been 
organized in Africa, except by Colonization from either Europe or 
America ; nor can it exist, except among civilized men. Before it can 
be organized at the Gaboon, an emigration of civilized men must sup- 
ply the necessary population ; or a generation or two pass away, while 
the work of education prepares the natives for the adoption of civilized 
customs. The climate forbids the settlement of white men at the 
Gaboon, or upon any part of the western coast of Africa ; and civil 
government, therefore, can not be introduced by them. Colored men, 

* Missionary Herald, August, 1853. 



224 Beyond the Injiucnce and Prokdion of the Colonies. 

alone, can live in the enjoyment of vigorous healtli in that region, andl 
the}' alone can accomplish this work. As the United Stales, alone, 
can supply a sufficient number of intelligent colored men to fill it wiih . 
colonies ; it follows, that colonization, from the United States to Africa, 
is necessary to the speedy organization of civil government and the 
more rapid extension of Christianity in that country. 

The Mission of the American Board to the Zulus, in South Africa, 
was begun in 1835. One station was commenced among the maritime 
Zulus, under king Dingaan, who resided on the east side of the Cape, 
some 70 miles from Port Natal ; and the other among the interior 
Zulup:, under king Mosilikatsi.* This station was broken up in 1837, 
by a war between the Zulus and the Boers, who were then emigrating 
from the Cape. The missionaries were forced to leave, and join their 
brethren at Natal ; but, in doing this, they were compelled to perform 
a journey of 1,300 miles, in a circuitous route, 1,000 of which was 
in ox wagons, through the wilderness, while they were greatly enfee- 
bled by disease, and disheartened by the death of the wife of one of 
their party. 

The missionaries to the maritime Zulus, when their brethren from 
the interior joined them, had succeeded in establishing one station 
among king Dingaan's people, and another at Port Natal, where a 
mixed population, from various tribes, had collected among the Dutch 
Boers, then settling in and around that place. In 1838 a war occurred 
between Dingaan and the Boers, which broke up the missions and 
(iompelled the missionaries to seek refuge on board some vessels, prov- 
identially at Natal, in Avhich some of them sailed to the United States, 
;ind others to the Cape. 

Peace being made in 1839, a part of the missionaries returned to 
Vatal and resumed their labors. But a revolt of one half the Zulus 
•'1 1840, under Umpandi, led to another war, in which the new 

■ liief and the Boers succeeded in overthrowing Dingaan. His death 
' y the liand of an old enemy, into whose territory he fled, left the 
Zulus under the rule of Umpandi, This chief allowed the mission in 

is territory to be renewed in 1841. But, in 1842, a war broke out 
'•etween the Boers, at Natal, and the British ; who, to prevent the 
l!oers from organizing an independent government, bad taken posses- 
•iou of that place. In this contest, the Boers w-ere forced to submit to 
'•ritish authority, and British law was extended to the population 
•1 round Natal. This led to large desertions of the Zulus to Natal, to 
• scape from the cruelties of Umpandi ; and he, becoming jealous of 
•lie missionary, attacked the mission and butchered three of the prin- 

■ ipal families engaged in its support. Thus, a second time, was this 
laission broken up and the mission family forced to retreat to Natal. 

Here, then, at the opening of 1843, nearly eight years after the 

* See Moffat's South African Missions. 



The Misaions among the Xative Tribes, 225 

missionaries reached Africa, they had not a single station ia tlio Zulu 
country, to which they had been sent ; and they were directed, by the 
T3oard, to abandon the lield. From this they were prevented, by llie 
timely remonstrances of the Rev. Dr. Philip, of the English mission at 
the Cape. 

A crisis, however, had now arisen, by which the conflicting elements, 
hitherto obstructing the Gospel, were rendered powerless or reduced to 
order, by the strong arm of Great Britain. The fierce Boers had de- 
stroyed the power of both Mosilikatsi and Dingaan, and taught the 
Zulu people that they could safely leave the standard of their chiefs ; 
while the Boers, in turn, had been subjected to British authority, along 
with the Zulus whom they had designed to enslave. The basis of a 
colony, under the protection of British law, was thus laid at Natal, 
Avhich afforded security to the missionaries, and enabled them to estab- 
lish themselves on a permanent basis. An attempt was also made to 
renew the mission in the Zulu territory, but Umpandi refused his as- 
sent, and the strength of the mission was concentrated within the 
Natal Colony. 

Owing to the continued cruelties of Umpandi, the desertions of his 
people to Natal increased, until the Colony included a native popula- 
tion, mostly Zulus, of nearly 100,000. 

No serious interruptions have occurred, since the British occupied 
Natal ; and opportunities have been afforded for studying the Zulu 
character, and the remaining obstacles to missionary success among 
that people. Time has shown, that the tyranny of the chiefs, and the 
wars of the tribes with each other, or with the whites, are not the 
most obstinate difficulties to be overcome. 

From the Report of the Board for 1850, we learn, that though there 
were then, in this field, 12 missionaries, 14 assistants, 6 native helpers, 
1 8 places of preaching, and 8 schools ; there were but 78 church mem- 
bers and 185 pupils. The Report attributes the slow progress made, 
to the extreme moral degradation of the population ; and, in mention- 
ing particulars, names polygamy as the most prominent. As among 
the native Africans generally, so is it here, superstition and sensuality 
are the great barriers to the progress of the Gospel. 

But these difficulties do not deter the American Board from perse- 
vering in their great work of converting Africa. The men composing 
the Board know, full well, that the evils existing in all mission fields 
can only be removed by God's appointed means, the Gospel ; and, 
that to withdraw it from Africa, would be to render its evils perpetual. 
Hence, as obstacles rise, they multiply their agencies for good : and, 
in view of the consistent conduct and piety of the native converts, the 
Report of 1850, recommends the establishment of a Theological school 
for training a native ministry for that field. The Reports for 1851 and 
1852 are more encouraging, and show an increase of 86 church mem- 
bers, 16 children baptized, and 15 Christian marriages solemnized. 
The Report for 1853 is less encouraging. The whole number of church 
15 



2:^0 Beyond the Influence and Protection of the Colonies. 

mereibers is now 141, of whom onlv 8 were received during the year. Ip 
Faniilv schools are sustained at all the stations ; hui none of the heathen-ii 
send their children. Three day-schools are taught by native converts, If 
in which the children of those residing at the stations, where they aretL 
located, receive instruction. One girls' school, consisting of about 20 J t 
pupils, is taught by Mrs. Adams.* The Christian Zulus are advanc-|( 
ing in civilization and in material prosperity; but the heathen popula-ji 
tion are manifesting more and more of stupid indifference or bitten 
hostility to the Gospel. This is more particularly indicated in theiri j 
refusal to send their children to school. 

The passage of this mission from the class beyond the protectioni 
of the Colonies, to that of those deriving security from them, released) 
it from the annoyances occasioned by native wars, and left it to con- 
tend with the obstacles, only, Avhich are inherent in heathenish bar- 
barism. It had, consequently, begun to progress encouragingly. Buti 
a new element of disturbance has recently been introduced, which 
threatens to be no less hurtful than the old causes of interruptidu and 
insecurity. We refer to the immigration of the English into the Natal 
Colony, and their efforts to dispossess the Zulus of their lands. 

Before taking any further notice of this threatening evil, we must 
call particular attention to another point, the importance of which has, 
perhaps, been too much overlooked. In January, 1853, the Rev. Mr. 
Tyler thus wrote : 

" I liave many thoughts, of late, concerning the great obstacle 
which lies in the way of elevating the Zulus. It seems to me that it 
is their deep iynorance. We find it exceedingly difficult to throw even 
one ray of light into minds so darkened and perverted by sin. * * 
Of the great mass who attend our services on the Sabbath, but {<i\v, 
probably, have any clear knowledge of the plan of salvation through 
faith in Christ. Especially is this true of the female sex, whose con- 
dition, both temporal and spiritual, seems almost beyond the reach of 
improvement." 

Mr. Tyler proceeds to show, that the Zulus, in their religious belief, 
their u-orahip, and their blind submission to the witch -doctors, evince the 
most deep, gross, and stupid ignorance imaginable ; but he presents 
nothing as belonging to that people, which is not common to the African 
tribes generally. Without, at present, remarking on the relation 
which tiie ignorance of Larburisui bears to the progress of missions, we 
.shall recur to the effects of the immigration of the whites into the 
Colony of Nalal. 

When the Zulus deserted their king and took refuge at Natal, tliere 
were but few whites present to be affected by the movement, and allot- 
ments of lands were readily obtained for them. Soon afterwards, 
liowever, an emigration from Great Britain began to fill up the country. 
'J'he main object of the whites was agriculture, and the best unoccu- 

* Missionary Ik-rald, for December, 1853, and January, 1854. 



. The Missions amoiig the XiUlve Tribes, 227 

'pied lands were soon appropriated. The new immii^rants then com- 
menced settling on the possessions of the Zulus. The de.'iigns of the 
whites soon manifested itself so openly, that the missionaries have been 
obliged to interpose for the protection of the natives. Accordingly, a 
committee of their number was deputed to wait upon the Lieutenant 
Governor, to learn his intentions on the subject. The report of the in- 
terview, as made to the American Board, reads as follows: 

"He plainly gave us to understand, that instead of collecting the 
• natives in bodies, as has hitherto been the policy, it was his purpose to 
disperse them among the colonists, and the colonists among them. The 
natural result will be, to deteriorate our fields of labor, by diminishing 
the native population, and by introducing a foreign element, which, as 
all missionary experience proves, conflicts with christianizing interests. 
Nor did he assure us that even our stations would not be infringed by 
foreign settlers ; but our buildings and their bare sites, he encouraged 
ns to expect, would at all events remain to us undisturbed. But lest 
this statement convey an impression which is too discouraging, we 
would say, that many of our fields embrace tracts of country so bro- 
ken, as not to be eligible as farms for the immigrants ; and, hence, no 
motive would exist for dispossessing the native occupants, unless it 
would be to transfer them to the more immediate vicinity of the white 
population, in order to facilitate their obtaining servants ; which at pre- 
sent is so difficult as to be considered one of the crying evils of the 
colony. So deep is the feeling on this subject, that many and strenuous 
are those who advocate a resort to some system of actual imprison- 
ment. This seems a strange doctrine to be held by the sons of Britain !" 

Then, after expressing an opinion that the obstacles in the way of 
this measure may prevent its execution for some years to come, the 
report concludes : 

" Yet it is more than probable, that some of our stations will expe- 
rience the disadvantages of the too great proximity of white settlers. 
The evils of such a proximity are aggravated by the prejudices which 
exist against missionaries and their operations. And perhaps we should 
say, that, as American missionaries, we are regarded with still greater 
jealousy. We fear it will require years to live down these prejudices. 
Public opinion is more or less fashioned by the influence of unprinci- 
pled speculators, alike ignorant of missionaries, their labors, or the 
native people. Such men, greedy of the soil of the original proprie- 
tors, are naturally jealous and envious of those who, they suppose, 
would befriend the natives in maintaining their rights. If we speak 
at all, of course we must say what we think to be justice and truth. 
If we remain silent, as we have hitherto done, we are misrepresented, 
and our motives are impugned. So that whichever course we take, we 
can not expect to act in perfect harmony with all the interests of all the 
men who, within the last few years, have come to the colony." * 

* Missionary Herald, February, 1853. 



2-8 Beyond the Injluence and Proteclion of the Coloyiies. 

The dar.o-or from the inroads of the -whites must l)e imminent, wheni 
the missionaries venture to speak so freely in their official report. Thei 
grounds of these fears ■will be understood, when we present the facta 
connected with our next class of missions. The fate of the Kaffirs,; 
doubtless, awaits the Zulus, if English cupidity is not restrained by a: 
merciful Providence. 

The Bishop of Cape Town, in speaking of tlie disastrous effects off 
the late Kaffir war, has recently expressed the opinion, that, in less than 
live years, another equally terrible in its results, in all probability, will 
occur between the whites and the Zulus ; and as a consequence of the- 
large number of Europeans who are mixing among them, and whose 
chief object appears to be their own enrichment, at the expense of that, 
people. 

The American Misstonarv Association, which is organized on 
strictly Anti-Slavery principles, lias a mission at Kasv-Mendi, 50 or t30 
miles north-west of Liberia, which belongs to the class of native mis- 
sions. This mission had its origin in the return of the " Amislad! 
Slaves," to their native country, in 1842. The Rev. Mr. llaymond 
went out at the head of this mission. On reaching Africa, he found 
wars everywhere prevailing to such an extent, that he could not reach 
the Mendi country, to which these people belonged, and was forced to 
settle at Kaw-Mendi, but 40 miles from the coast. The continuation 
of these wars greatly hindered the progress of the mission, as long as 
Mr. Raymond lived, and for more than a year after his successor, the 
Rev. George Thompson, took charge of the station, in 1848. Mr. 
Thompson thus became painfully familiar with African warfare ; and 
represents it us having been conducted with the utmost cruelty — whole 
towns being depopulated and multitudes driven to the coast and sold 
to the slave-traders of the Gallinas. Mr. Thompson was in Africa 
about two years and a half, and was also greatly hindered by these 
wars in his efforts to instruct the people ; until, happily, the British 
squadron forcibly suppressed the traffic in slaves, at Grand Cape 
Mount and the Gallinas, and thus put an end to the market. The sup- 
l)lies of European merchandise being thus cut off from the slave-trad- 
ing kings, along the coast, they were induced to sell their tt;rritory to 
I'resident Roberts, and place themselves under the jurisdiction of Li- 
beria. One of the sti])ulations in the treaties, requires the Liberians 
to establish trading posts in the territory, for the supply of goods to the 
native jtopulalion ; that they might no longer have any excuse for con- 
tinuing the slave-trade. 

Kaw-Mendi is in the rear of the Gallinas. The termination of the 
'lemand for slaves, at once disposed the tribes around the mission to 
make peace witii each other; and Mr. Thompson was eminently suc- 
cessful in reconciling the warring parties to each other. But several 
nionlhs elapsed, from the date of the destruction of the slave-factories, 
before peace could be restored or the Gallinas purchased. Though. 



I Tiie Missions among the Xulive Tdhes, 229 

of eii attempted, neither of these objects could be nccompllslied during 
thu existence of the slave-trade ; and, when etiected, boih were the re- 
sult of the adoption of measures for the purchase of Gallinas, as anew 
lield for the operations of the American Colonization Society. It, is a 
curious coincidence, that the letter of the Rev. Mr. Thompson, inform- 
ing the Board of his success in making peace among the tribes ; and 
that of President Roberts to the Colonization Society, announcing the 
purchase of Gallinas, were both written on the same day. 

Mr. Thompson had. so many urgent solicitations from the chiefs, for 
missionaries to come and reside in their territory, that the society sent 
out a reinforcement of eight males and females, in December, 1850; 
and he, himself, returned to the United States, during the same month, 
to remove his family to Kaw-Mendi. The new missionaries reached 
the mission in safety, in February, 1851, and found Mr. Brooks, in- 
whose care it had been left, in the peaceful pursuit of his duties, and 
the people urgent for more teachers. Before the close of the year, 
however, the mission was shrouded in gloom. " The war had recom- 
menced its ravages ; and sickness and death had performed a fearful 
work among the little company of missionaries." Three of the females 
had died by the 10th of June. The Board report the condition of the 
mission, at the close of 1851, as encouraging, and that some additions 
had been made to the church during the year. 

The Report for 1852, says, that the mission has labored under 
serious embarrassments, and that its operations have been retarded 
throughout a great part of the year, by the illness of many of its mem- 
bers ; and that it has been impossible to commence the new stations 
authorized the last year. The Board, during this year, appointed a 
large number of new missionaries, so as to increase the Mendi mission 
to 17, including males and females. This reinforcement was accom- 
panied by the Rev. George Thompson and his family, who now returned 
to the field of his former labors. 

The Report for 1853, informs us that the new missionaries had 
reached Africa, early in February ; and that all of them had suffered 
more or less from sickness durin'j- the acclimatinfj season. The older 
missionaries, too, continued to suffer from the debilitating influence of 
the climate. In June the eldest son of Mr. Thompson died, and soon 
afterwards Mrs. Thompson's health so far failed that she had to be 
removed by her husband to the United States. Mr. Arnold and his 
wife have also been compelled to ask for a dismission from the service, 
on account of the state of his health. 

During the whole of the year reported, the country has been suffer- 
ing under one of the most wide-spread and desolating wars that has 
been known there since the establishment of the mission. It has so 
far hindered the progress of the work, as to allow of the opening of 
but one of the stations contemplated, that of Tissana, up the Big 
Boom river. The latest advices from the mission, says the Report, 
encourage the hope that the war will soon be brought to a close ; 



230 Beyond the Ivfiuence and the Protection of the Colonies 

nnd the opinion is expressed that the infamous slave-trade was at the'j 
bottom of it.* 

The school at Kaw-Mendi has received several additions to its num- 
bers during the year, and the new one at Tissana has been commenced 1 
witli encouraging- prospects. The chiefs, with but a single exception, , 
have consented to the establishment of missions and schools among their 
people. The Report closes by remarking, "that the published obser- 
\ ations of other laborers on that continent serve to show, that white ; 
men can live and labor there; and -that there are in the interior,, 
towards which they are pressing, more civilized, intelligent, and pow- • 
crful nations and regions of country, not only less inimical than those i 
they now occupy, to the health of the white man, but even more • 
healthy than many parts of the United States. The Spirit and provi- 
dence of God thus beckon us onward, and woe will be upon us if we 
falter in our course." 

The Report is dated September, 1863, and Mr. Thompson, in com- 
pany with Mr. Condit, sailed again for Africa, in November. Letters 
have been received from him at Sierra Leone, where he landed in Jan- 
uary, on his way to Kaw-Mendi. Thus has this devoted missionary, 
for the third time, braved the dangers of the African climate. 

Intelligence from Kaw-Mendi, as late as October, 1853, has been 
received. The mission at Tissana has been abandoned, on account of 
the distracted state of the country between it and Kaw-Mendi, pro- 
duced by the continuation of the wars ; and, in lieu thereof, a station 
has been commenced at Sherbro Island, where peace and safety pre- 
vail. The school at Kaw-Mendi, is prospering, writes Dr. Cole ; but 
" of the one hundred children there gathered, the mass," he says, "are 
yet heathen, with the habits that ignorance, superstition and nakedness 
beget. Bad as these are, they form the most hopeful material for mis- 
sionary culture, and it is for their elevation and purification our mis- 
sionaries toil. Oh ! how much they need the sympathies and prayers 
of God's people."! Mr. Gray, who went out three years since, has 
returned with his wife to recruit his health. 

To gain a clear view of the hindrances to the missions among the 
natives, we must add the testimony of Bishop Scott, to that already 
])resented. 

The first difficulty which meets the missionary, he says, on going to 
this people, is an unknown and uncultivated tongue ; a tongue, too, 
which varies so much, as he passes from one tribe to another, within 

* Recent developments at Sierra Leone, have proved, beyond all qucstioji, 
thiit certain persons, in that English Colony, have long been secretly engaged 
in llie slave-trade. There is reason to believe, however, that tliese wars liave 
l)een excited by the English scheme of restocking their West India plantations 
by purchasing cmiqrunts, at .$10 per head, from the African chiefs. See the 
letter of President Roberts, f)n this snbject, in Appendix. 

+ American Missionary, March, lb53. 



The Missions amowj the Xative Tribes, 231 

'Le space of only a few miles, that it often amounts to a difFeront lan- 
guage. Tlie nature of this obstacle will be so easily comprehended, 
;hat tlie details given by the Bishop, need not be quoted. He thus 
aroceeds : 

"But now another difficulty assails him — one which his knowledge 
>f men in other parts of the world had given him no reason to antici- 
pate. Though he may in some way get over the difficulty presented 
n a rude foreign tongue, yet he now tinds, to his utter surprise, that 
he can not gain access to this people unless he dash them, (that is, 
make them presents,) and only as he dashes them. When, where, or 
how this wretched custom arose I can not tell, but it is found to pre- 
vail over most parts of Africa, and, so far as I know, nowhere else. 
But what shall our missionary now do ? Will he dash them ? 
Will he dash them 'much plenty?' Then they will hear him — they 
will flock around him — nay, he may do with them almost as he wists, 
and a nation may be born in a day. But let him not be deceived, for 
all is not gold, here especially, that glitters. So soon as he withholds 
his dashes, ten to one they are all as they were. But is he poor and 
can not dash them ? — or able, but on principle will not ? Then, as a 
general fact, he may go home. They will not hear him at all, nor treat 
him with the least respect. Indeed, they will probably say, ' He no good 
man,' — and it will be well for him if they do not get up a palaver 
against him and expel him from their coasts. This dashing is a most 
mischievous custom — dreadfully in the way of missionary labor, and I 
know not how it is to be controlled. I am sick of the very sound of 
the word. The Lord help poor Africa ! 

" But the difficulties multiply. Now a hydra-headed monster gapes 
upon our missionary, of most frightful aspect, and as tenacious of life 
as that fabled monster of the ancient poets. It i?, polygamy. He finds 
to his grief and surprise, that every man has as many wives as he can 
find money to buy. He must give them all up but one, if he would 
be a Christian. But will he give them up ? Not easily. He will 
give up almost any thing before he will give up his wives. They are 
his slaves, in fact ; they constitute his wealth. And then it is ditficult, 
not to say impossible, to persuade him that it is not somehow morally 
wrong to put them away. ' Me send woman away ? — where she go 
to ? — what she do ?' This I consider the hugest difficulty with which 
Christianity has to contend in the conversion of this people, and makes 
me think that she must look mainly to the rising generation. 

" But here, too, a difficulty arises. The female children are con- 
tracted away — are sold, in fact — by their parents while they are yet 
A'ery young, often while they are infants ; and if the missionary would 
procure them for his schools, he must pay the dower — some fifteen or 
twenty dollars. 

" But our missionary finds that the whole social and domestic organ- 
ization of these people is opposed to the pure, chaste, and comely spirit 
of the Gospel, and that, to succeed in this holy work, it must not only 



-.>w Beyond the Injluence and Protection of the Colonics. 

be changed, but revolutionized — upturned from the very foundation. 
Is there no difficulty here ? Are habits and customs, so long estab- 
lished and so deeply rooted, to be given up without a struggle ? The 
native people, both men and women, go almost stark naked, and they 
love to go so — and are not abashed in the presence of people betttr 
dressed ; they eat with their hands, and dip, and pull, and tear, with 
as liltle ceremony and as little decency as monkeys, and they love to 
eat so ; they sleep on the bare ground, or on mats spread on the 
ground, and they love to sleep so ; the men hunt or tish, or lounge 
about their huts, and smoke their pipes, and chat, and sleep, while their 
wives, alias their slaves, tend and cut and house their rice — cut and 
carry home their wood — make their fires, fetch their water, get out 
their rice, and prepare their 'chop,' — and all, even the Avomen, love to 
have it so. And to all the lemonstrances of the missionary, they 
oppose this simple and all-settling reply. ' This be countryman's fash.' 
They seem incapable of conceiving that your fash is better than theirs, 
or that theirs is at all defective. Your fash, they will admit, may be 
better for you, but theirs is better for them. So the natives of Cape 
Palmas have lived, in the very midst of the colonists, for some twenty 
years, and they are the same people still, with almost no visible 
change." 

The Bishop next notices their superstitions and idolatries, and the 
evils connected with their belief in witchcraft ; and says, that though, 
by the influence of the colony and missions, their confidence is, in some 
places, being shaken in some of them ; they generally even yet think 
you a fool, and pity you, if you venture to hint that there is nothing in 
them. But we must not quote him farther than to include his closing 
remarks : 

" But what ! Do you then think that there is no hope for these 
lieathen, or that we should give up all hopes directed to that end ? 
Not I, indeed. Very far from it. I would rather reiterate the noble 
saying of the sainted Cox : ' Though a thousand fall even, in this at- 
tempt, yet let not Africa be given up.' I mention these things to show, 
that there are solid reasons why our brethren in Africa have accom- 
plished so little ; and also to show, that the Churches at home must, 
in this work particularly, exercise the patience of faith and the labor of 
love. We must still pound the rock, even though it is hard, and our 
mallets be but of wood. It will break one day." 

Our inquiries into the condition of the Missions among the natives, 
A\here civil government exerts no influence, must now be closed. The 
f-tale of things is about this: The chiefs, ambitious of distinction and 
avaricious, often favor the settlement of missionaries, on account of the 
cijnsequence it gives them, or from mercenary motives ; the division of 
the population into small tribes, and their marauding dispositions, leads 
to frequent wars; tlie tyranny of the chiefs, and their fear of losing 
their influence, often leads them, after having admitted the missionary, 



The ATisslons among the Xative Tribes, 233 

to oppose Lis work and deter their people from attending his preaching ; 
the existence of slavery and hereditary chieftainism, leaves the mass 
of the population incapable of independent action ; the ignorance of 
barbarism, overshadowing their minds, renders them incapable of com- 
prehending moral truth ; the superstitions of ages are not to be given 
up, readily, for a religion they can not comprehend ; the custom of re • 
caivmg dashes, tends to prejudice the native against the missionary ; 
and, above all, the practice of polygamy, ministering to the indolerice 
and sensuality of the men, and reducing the women to the condition of 
slaves, stands as a wall of adamant in the way of the progress of the 
Gospel. 

Tliese are the more prominent barriers to the success of missions in 
Africa, where civil government exerts no power, and the influence of 
Christian society is not felt. 

It will not be improper here, to pause and observe, that there seems 
to be a marked difference between the agencies necessary to secure suc- 
cess in propagating the Gospel among an Asiatic and an African popu- 
lation. Both, it must be remembered, are heathen ; but the minds of 
the one are enlightened, of the other barbarous. In Asia, where a 
knowledge of agriculture, manufactures, commerce, and the mechan- 
ical and tine arts prevail, the mental culture of the people renders them 
accessible to the Gospel. Many of them can comprehend its truths, 
when heard from the lips of the preacher, or when read in the printed 
Scriptures. For this reason, some of the prominent missions in India 
have relied upon the preaching of the word, as their principal agency ; 
while circulating the Scriptures and teaching the youth, have been em- 
ployed only as auxiharies. Others have relied mainly upon the mul- 
tiplication of facilities for educating the youth ; while spreading the 
printed word, and employing the foreign preacher, have been con- 
sidered as secondary matters — the chief hope being in the preparation 
of a native ministry, who should ultimately enter largely upon that 
work. Others, again, have combined all these agencies, as means 
which God has blessed in the conversion of sinful men. The whole of 
these systems have been successful in Asia, and their supporters, re- 
spectively, see but little cause for changing their measures. 

But in Africa, and among the North American Indians, where the 
intellectual faculties of the population are shrouded in the darkness of 
barbarism,* the preaching of the word, in the commencement of a mis- 
sion, has been but rarely successful in producing conversions ; while 
the total ignorance of letters among these people, has rendered the cir- 
culation of the Scriptures useless. Christian missionaries, therefore, in 
attempting to introduce the Gospel among the Indians or Africans, 
have been forced to rely upon the education of youth as the means of 
success. 



* Barbarism is the ignorance of infancy prolonged into adult age. This defi- 
nition will convey a true idea of its relations to moral and religious truth. 



234 Berjond the Injluence and Protection of the Colonies. 

But -whether in North America, Africa or Asia — whether converted 
v;\\\\e training in the schools, or under the reading or preaching of the 
word — the niultiphcation of native agents to take part in the work, 
greatly promotes the progress of the Gospel. So well is this now un- 
derstood, that the preparation of native teachers and preachers, has 
become the chief aim of all missions to the heathen ; and the persist- 
ence in one or the other of the systems of operations to which we 
have referred, is due to the importance they respectively attach to an 
educated ministry. 

While, however, teaching, reading, and preaching, are the chief in- 
strumentalities for the conversion of the world ; the progress of the 
Gospel, everywhere, is greatly accelerated by the presence of a Chris- 
tian population, whose example aids in overturning the customs and 
superstitions of the people, and commends the religion of Christ to 
their confidence. As a mission, then, adds to the number of its con- 
verts, or receives additions of civilized emigrants, its abihty of becoming 
more and more aggressive is increased, and its powers of progression 
multiplied. 

Where reliance is placed upon education, mainly, for introducing 
the Gospel, its progress is necessarily slow; because a generation, or 
two, is needed to bring forward a competent number of agents to take 
possession of the Held. The drawbacks, too, are very great — much 
seed being sown, which falls upon stony ground. If schools are con- 
ducted upon a large scale, the children must be supported by their pa- 
rents ; and, in such cases, the superstitions and vices of heathenism 
have, but too often, an easy victory over the doctrines and precepts of 
Christianity. In this respect no new principle has been discovered. 
In Christian countries, where custom, law, and the example of parents, 
combine to give the ascendency to virtue, who can hope that his children 
will escape moral contamination, if they be permitted to mingle, at will, 
with the vicious and depraved. How much more, then, are the chil- 
dren of the heathen endangered, if left in the care of licentious and 
idolatrous parents, among a population where the laws of virtue are 
unknown ? 

To avoid these evils. Bishop Scott urges, that the native children, 
attending the Methodist schools in Liberia, be taken into the families 
of the missionaries — a system which has been pursued with success, 
by some of the other societies. 

But we need not extend these observations. It is not difficult to 
comprehend the connection which exists between Colonization and the 
more rapid extension of the Gospel in Africa ; and to see the superior- 
ity of the missions in Liberia, to those among the natives. Look but 
a moment at its advantaiies. Liberia contains a i>reater number of the 
elements of success, than are embraced in the missions to the natives, 
or in those of any other class ; and, consequently, must be more effici- 
'tnt in promoting the evangelization of the African people. The over- 
awiiv; influence of its laws npon the natives — the permanency of its 



The Missions in Connection with the 235 

scliools — the circulation of the Scriptures and religious tracts among 
those taught to read — the protection aftbrded by its government to the 
missionaries — the constant preacliing of the word — the high morality 
of its Christian popuhition — the influx of civilized emigrants who are 
the descendants of those ci'uelly torn from their shores in former years 
— all tend directly to promote the work of missions. Colonization, 
therefore, sxipplies to the missions in Liberia, at once, the instrument- 
alities which those among the natives are only able to acquire after 
many years of toil. 

IV. The Missions in Connection with the Colonies of White Men in 

South Africa. 

We must refer a moment to the civil history of South Africa, as it is 
essential to the proper understanding of its Missionary histoiy. 

The Dutch took possession of the Cape in 1650, and this occupancy 
was followed by an extensive emigration of that people to Cape Town 
and its vicinity. The encroachments of the emigrants upon the Hot- 
tentots, soon gave rise to wars, which resulted in the enslavement of 
this , feeble race. The English captured Cape Town in 1795, ceded it 
back in 1801, retook it in 1808, and still hold it in possession. 

The climate of South Africa being favorable to the health of Euro- 
peans, an English emigration to the Cape commenced soon after it 
became a British province. This led to further encroachments upon 
the native tribes, and to much disaffection upon the part of the Dutch, 
who were designated by the term Boers.* They remained in the 
Colony, however, until 1834, when the emancipation act, of the British 
Parliament, set the Hottentots free. This so enraged the Boers, that 
they emigrated in large bodies beyond the limits of Cape Colony. In 
seeking new homes, they came in contact with the Zulus, as already 
stated, and aided in the subjugation of that powerful people. 
Driven by the English from the Zulu country, the Boers passed on to 
the north-west, far into the interior, where we shall soon hear from 
them again. 

The English, in extending their settlements to the north-east of Cape 
Town, soon came into collision with the Kaffirs ; who, being a powerful 
and warlike race, made a vigorous resistance to their advances. The 
Kaffirs stole the cattle of the whites, and the whites retaliated on the 
Kaffirs. These depredations often resulted in wars, each of which gave 
the English government a pretext to add a portion of the Kaffir terri- 
tory to its own. As war followed on war, the Kaffirs improved in the 
art, acquired something of the skill of their enemies, and learned the 
xise of European weapons. Thus every Kaffir war became more for- 
midable, requiring more troops, costing more money, and, of course, 
demanding more territory. In consequence of these various annexa- 
tions from the Kaffirs, Zulus, and others, the English possessions in 

*The German term for farmers. 



236 Colonies cf White Men in South Africa. 

South Africa now cover a space of 282,000 square miles ; 105,000 of 
■which have been added since 1847 — the year of the great failure in 
the cotton crop of the United States. 

The Missionary History of South Africa, though of great interest, 
must also be very brief. 

A Moravian mission, begun in 1736, among the Hottentots, was 
broken up at the end of six years, by the Dutch authorities, and its 
renewal prevented for 49 years. Having been resumed in 1792, it 
was again interrupted in 1795, but soon afterwards restored under 
British authority. Here, the hostility of the Dutch government to 
Christian Missions excluded the Gospel from South Africa during a 
period of half a century. 

A mission to the Kaffirs, begun in 1799, by Dr. Vanderkemp, was 
abandoned in a year, on account of the jealousies of that people to- 
wards the whites, and their plots to take his life. The other missions, 
of various denominations, begun from time to time, in South Africa, 
have also been interrupted and retarded by the wars of the natives 
with each other, and more especially with the whites. 

The pecuniary loss to the English, by the war of 1835, was 
$1, 200,000; and by that of 1846-7,^3,425,000. This, however, 
was a matter of little importance, compared with the moral bearings 
of these conflicts. The missions suffei'ed more or less in all the wars, 
either by interruptions of their labors, or in having their people pressed 
into the army. In that of 1846-7, the London Society had its four 
stations in the Kaffir country entirely ruined, and its missionaries and 
people compelled to seek refuge in the Colony. 

But the most disastrous of all these conflicts, and that which has cast 
the deepest gloom over the South African Missions, was the Kaffir war 
of 1851-2-3. These missions, with the exception of that to the Zulus, 
are under the care of ten missionary societies, all of which are Euro- 
pean. They had recovered from the shocks of the former wars, and 
were in an encouraging state ; when, in December, 1850, the Kaffir war 
broke out. In consequence of that war, many of the missions have 
been reduced to a most deplorable condition ; and afford a sad com- 
mentary on the doctrine that the white and black races, in the present 
moral condition of the world, can dwell together in harmony. 

The missions of the Scotch Free Church were in the very seat of war, 
the buildings of two of them destroyed, and the missionaries forced to 
flee for their lives ; while the third was only saved by being fortified. 

The Berlin Missionary Society, had its missionaries driven from two 
of its stations, during the progress of the war. 

The Mission of the United Presbyterian Synod of Scotland, which 
consisted of three stations, were all involved in ruin. The war laid 
waste the mission stations, scattered the missionaries and converts, sus- 
pended entirely the work of instruction, and has done an amount of 
evil which can scarcely be exaggerated. The Report for 1853, say.s, 



The JUissions in Connection icith the 237 

that the mission can not be resumed on its old basis, as the Kaffirs 
around their stations are to be driven awa)"- ; and though the native 
converts, numbering 100, might be collected at one of the stations, it 
is deemed better that a delegation visit South Africa, and report to the 
Board a plan of future operations. 

The London Missionary Society also suffered greatly, and some of 
their missionaries were stript of every thing they possessed. The Re- 
port, for 1853, says : " This deadly conflict has at length terminated, 
and terminated, as might have been foreseen, by the triumph of British 
anns. The principal Kaffir chiefs, with their people, have been driven 
out of their country ; and their lands have been allotted to British sol- 
diers and colonists. And on the widely extended frontier there will be 
established military posts, from which the troops and the settlers are to 
guard the colony against the return of the exiled natives." 

Such, indeed, was the hostility of the whites toward the missionaries 
themselves, at one of the Churches in the white settlements, that bul- 
lets were not unfrequently dropped into the collection plates.* 

Both Moravian and Wesleyan Missions have been destroyed. In one 
instance, 250 Hottentots perished by the hands of English soldiers, in 
the same Church where they had listened to the word of God from the 
Moravian missionaries ; not because they were enemies, but in an at- 
tempt to disarm a peaceable population. Such are the cruelties inci- 
dent to this war ! 

The Paris Missionary Society, has thirteen stations in South Africa. 
Its Report, for 1853, complains of the interruptions and injuries which 
its missions have suffered, in consequence of the military commotions 
which have prevailed in the fields occupied by its missionaries. In al- 
luding to the obstacles to the Gospel, which everywhere exist. Dr. 
Grandpierre, the Director of the Society, says : " But how are these 
obstacles multiplied, when the missionary is obliged to encoimter, in the 
lives of nominal Christians, that which gives the lie to his teachings. 
Irritated by the measures which are employed against them, may not 
the aborigines rightfully say to the whites, with more truth than ever, 
'•You call yourselves the children of the God of peace ; and yet you 
make war upon us. You teach justice ; but you are guilty of injustice. 
You preach the love of God ; and you take away our liberty and our 
property.' " 

One of the Scotch Societies, near the close of the Kaffir war, when 
summing up the effects it had produced, draws this melancholy pic- 
ture : 

" All missionary operations have been suspended ; the converts are 
either scattered or compelled, by their hostile countrymen, to take part 
in the revolt ; the missionaries have been obliged to leave the scenes 
of their benevolent labors ; hostile feelings have been excited between 
the black and white races, which it will require a long period to sooth 

*Missionary Magazine and Chronicle, October, 1853. 



_.j8 Colonies of White 2Ien in South Africa. 

•lown ; and ihe prospects of evangelizing Kaffirland have been rendered 
-lark and distant." 

But we are not yet done recounting the obstacles to the progress of 
ilie Gospel in South Africa, and the oppressions to which its population 
ire subjected. Our last reference to the Boers, left them emigrating 
oward the interior of Africa. It appears that they have selected ter- 
ritory and organized themselves into a government, under the title of 
ihe "Free Republic;" and that, in the course of the last year their 
independence has been acknowledged by Great Britain. The Boers, 
dthough recognized as a nation, seem httle disposed to peace ; but 
have, lately, proceeded to destroy some of the stations of the London 
Missionary Society, and to drive two English missionaries from their 
lerritory. They have also attacked and plundered three of the native 
tribes, killing 60 men and taking a number of women and children 
prisoners. Their movements seem to indicate that they are determined 
(0 prevent the English from extending northward into their vicinity ; 
and it is feared they will enslave or ruin the native tribes among whom 
ihey have settled. When charged with this design, they denied it, and 
claimed that the servitude they adopt is not slavery, but a system of 
apprcniiceshiji — such, we suppose, as the English have established, to 
secure laborers for their West India plantations. The missionaries, how- 
ever, have ascertained that the natives are bought and sold by them ; 
and from this fact it is inferred, that the fate of the Hottentots, in for- 
mer years, will, doubtless, be the lot of the natives who are now in the 
power of the Boers. Alas ! for poor Africa ! 

Rfferring to these events, the London Society expresses the opinion, 
that, hereafter, the missionaries will not be left untrammeled, or the 
liberty of the natives preserved, in the "Free Republic," unless the 
British nation shall utter its voice distinctly and earnestly in behalf of 
these unoffending myriads.* In that event, doubtless, the liberty of 
the natives might be prolonged, until English emigrants should de- 
mand their lands; and then, the fate of the Kaffirs would await them. 

We must here close these investigations. In reflecting upon the 
conse(juences attending the emigration of the English and Dutch into 
South Africa, we can not but be struck with the sameness of the re- 
sults there, and those connected with European emigration among the 
North American Indians. Unlike the emigration of the colored people 
into West Africa, that of the whites into South Africa and North 
America, has tended to the destruction of the native heathen, and not, 
as in Liberia, to their moral redemption. Nor are the inducements to 
c.vchange lieathen customs for those of Christianity, as strong in South 
Africa as in Liberia. The natives, in the former, on abandoning 
heathenism only become subjects of British law, and not freemen, as 

♦Report of Annual Meeting, May, 1853. 



Conclusion. 239 

in the latter, participating in the affairs of government. The South 
African chief, has even less reason than his people, to forsake his bar- 
barism ; as he only thereby loses his power, and, from being him- 
self a king, he becomes a subject, and compelled to bow to the white 
man, who has robbed him of his greatness. These obstacles to mis- 
sionary progress in South Africa, are daily on the increase, by addi- 
tional European emigration ; as each white man, who sets his foot 
upon the Cape, but adds to the necessity for robbing the natives of 
additional lands. On the contrary, each colored emigrant to Liberia, 
by adding to the strength of the Republic, is aiding in extending to the 
natives the blessings of freedom and of peace, and securing to them 
their right to their homes under the sanction of Christian laws. 

Thus, it appears, that, as the colonization of colored men in Liberia 
elevates the native population, secures harmony of feeling and unity 
of interest between the parties, gives distinction to the race, and secures 
the more rapid extension of the Gospel ; so the emigration of white 
men into South Africa, tends to degrade the natives, produces enmity 
of feeling and diversity of interest, destroys whatever of nationality 
they possessed, and erects a mighty barrier against their conversion to 
Christianity. 

Tlie total missionary force in South Africa, is imder the care of 
eleven Missionary Societies, ten of which are European, and one 
American. Their condition, in 1850, before the commencement of the 
Kaffir war, was as follows :* Missionaries 214, assistant missionaries 
155, native assistants 8, communicants 12,116, schools 60, scholars 
20,100. 

CONCLUSION. 

Here we must close our inquiries, sum up the results, see what ex- 
perience teaches, draw the contrasts between these several classes of 
Missions, and determine the best mode of employing human instru- 
mentalities for the extension of the Gospel in Africa. 

These Missions, as we have shown, had to be planted upon a broad 
field of barbarism ; where the civil condition, the objects of worship, 
the social customs, the intellectual state of the people, were the antag- 
onists of what prevail under a Christian civilization. The missionary's 
task embraced much of toil, privation, danger, patience, perseverance. 
Wars were to be turned into peace, superstitions overthrown, polygamy 
abolished, ignorance dispelled, before civilization and Christianity could 
be established. This was the work to be accomplished. The results 
have been given in detail, and now they must only be recapitulated 
and contrasted. 

The Missions to the natives, beyond the protection of the colonies, 
have made the least progress. They are established upon the proper 

* Baird's Retrospect, pa.^es 400-2. 



2 to Conclusion. 

basis, but have fewer agencies employed llian the other missions, and 
a corresponding" inefficiency is the result. Common schools, Sabbatli 
schools, and preaching, are means used for promoting the Gospel in all 
the African missions. Those to the natives, are limited chiefly to these 
tliree plans of operation, while the other missions possess many subor- 
dinate means that greatly facilitate their progress. Preaching to 
adults, though not altogether unsuccessful, has won but few converts, 
and done but little for the overthrow of superstition. Education lays 
the axe at the root of ignorance, but from the fewness of the teachers 
and schools, the small attendance of pupils, and the reaction of hea- 
thenism upon them, it has made very little impression on the surround- 
ing barbarism. Less, still, has been done by these missions, in pre- 
venting native wars ; while polygamy remains almost wholly unaffected 
by them. The greatest difficulty, however, is, that the missionaries, 
with very few exceptions, are white men, whose constitutions, gener- 
ally, yield to the effects of the climate, and the missions are constantly 
liable to be weakened and broken up. This is true of the Gaboon and 
Mendi Missions, particularly, and can be remedied, only, by substitut- 
ing colored missionaries, since they, alone, have constitutions adapted 
to the climate. The mission to the Zulus differs from these two, in 
having a climate better adapted to the Anglo-Saxon; but it has to 
contend with the additional obstacle of a hostile wdiite immigration, 
which threatens its existence. As the customs and morals of Chris- 
tianity become better understood, at these missions, the enmity of the 
natives continues to increase ; and the missionary, after years of toil, 
feels, more and more, the indispensable necessity of multiplying the 
agencies for removing the barriers to the Gospel by which he is 
surrounded. 

The Missions in South Africa, by their early success, and the pro- 
gress they have always made in times of peace, afford ample evidence 
of the practicability of Christianizing Afiica, wherever civil govern- 
ment protects the missionary, and prevents the prevalence of native 
wais. But while we may here derive a powerful argument in favor of 
increased effort for the extension of Christianity, wlicre the conditions 
of society are thus favorable ; the additional lesson is impressed upon 
the mind, with tremendous force, that the white and black races — that 
Englishmen and Africans — can not dwell together as equals ; but that 
tlie intelligence and active energies of the one, when brought into con- 
flict with the ignorance and indolent habits of the other, must make 
the Negro an easy prey to the Anglo-Saxon. The sad results of this 
conflict of races, in the wars of the last few years, casts a deep gloom 
over the future prospects of South Africa, and renders it doubtful 
wjiether the missions can be sustained among the natives as indepen- 
iliiit tribes. It would appear, that, under British policy, the loss of 
liberty is the price at which the African must purchase Christianity. 



Conclusion. 24 1 

The immigration of Englislimen into South Africa, then, instead of 
diminishing the obstacles to the success of the Gospel, is adding a new 
one of an aggravated character. Nor can the difficulty be obviated. 
When Christian missions harmonize with the policy of England, she 
grants them protection ; but when they stand in the way of tho 
execution of her schemes, they are brushed aside as objects of in- 
difl'erence, and treated with no higher regard than pagan institutions. 
While her soldiers were slaughtering the Christian Hottentots, in the 
church of the Moravians, her revenues were upholding the heathen 
temples of India. As she designs to build up an extensive white col- 
ony, in South Africa, the main obstacles to these missions will be ren- 
dered as immovable as the British throne. In this respect, they are 
more discouramnf; than those to the natives, the barriers to which must 
be broken down by time and perseverance. 

How strangely the cruelty of Great Britain, towards the Kaffir?, 
contrasts with her humanity towards the recaptured Africans of Sierra 
Leone ! In the former case, she robbed the blacks of their posses- 
sions, to give lands to her white subjects ; in the latter, Cuba and 
Brazil were deprived of their cargoes of slaves, to build up a colony 
for herself. But how much stranger, still, does England's conduct 
contrast with the policy of American Colonization ! Liberia, instead 
of robbing the Native African of his rights, was founded, expressly, to 
rescue him from oppression and superstition, and to bestow upon him 
liberty and the Gospel of Christ. 

The Missions in the English Colonies of Recaptured Africans, have 
been more successful, and are more promising, than either of the two 
just noticed. The cause of this difference should be considered. The 
foundations of Sierra Leone were laid, when Africa was literally "the 
land of the shadow of death." Its corner stone inclosed the last link 
of the shackles of slavery in England. Its founder looked forAvard to 
the redemption of the land of Ham, as a result of the scheme he had 
projected. A large majority of the emigrants who founded the Col- 
ony, had been trained where Religion was free, and where Liberty was 
struggling into birth. They had caught something of the spirit of 
freedom, and wished to reahze its blessings. These hopes were blasted; 
and, in anger, they abandoned the churches they had built, rather than 
accept religion at the hands of those who had denied them freedom. 
They failed to discriminate between the unchristian policy of the Eng- 
lish government, and the Christian charity of the English Church. 
The slave-trade was carried on under the flag that brought them the 
missionary ; and they turned coldly away from the man of God, to let 
liim re-embark for his English home, or sink to the grave beneath a 
tropical sun. Thus did the Gospel fail in its establishment among the 
emigrants of Sierra Leone. Neither could it succeed among the 
surrounding natives, wliile the hunters of slaves kept the tribes in 
pc!rpetual hostilities. Thus twenty years rolled away, before the traffic 
16 



-42 Concliusion. 

in Iniman flpsli was suppressed ; and then, only, could Christianity . 
gain a foothold. I 

But the gift of cqiKiI riglits was not included in the gift of the Gos- | 
pel ; and half the stimulants to mental improvement remained imsup- 
plied. The agencies established, however, were not powerless for 
good. Security was gained for the missionary, ami the population 
could dwell in peace. The Episcopal missionaries were driven into 
I lie Colony, to prosecute their labors under its protection. The preju- 
dices engendered by the early collisions with the civil authorities, wore 
;i\vay with the lapse of time. The American fugitives, who had re- 
fused the Gospel from tlie Episcopalians, now accepted it from the 
^Vesleyans. The denial of civil rights to themselves, could not justify 
their refusal of eternal life for their oifspring. The children were 
gathered once more into the schools, and education commenced. 
Sierra Leone was made the " city of refuge," for all who should be 
rescued from the horrors of the slave-ships ; and thus it became a 
central sun from which the light of th.e Gospel could radiate to the far- 
thest limits of Africa. 

Sierra Leone, as a mission lield, is free from some of the most seri- 
ous difficulties which retard the progress of the Gospel among the 
Natives and in South Africa. Its chief advantages consist in its free- 
dom from war ; in the absence of white Colonists ; and in the accumu- 
lating progress of civilization. Its inhabitants possess such a unity of 
races, such a social equality, as to prevent hostile collisions on account 
of color. Its officers and principal merchants, only, are white ; and, 
hence, fewer occasions arise here than in South Africa, where the black 
man is made to feel his inferiority to the white. The intellectual im- 
provement of its people has been much more rapid than that of the 
population in the South African Missions ; and, as a consequence, the 
teachers of the schools and seminaries, in Sierra Leone and its connec- 
lious, are, mostly, colored men; Avhile few, indeed, of the natives in 
the Colonies of the Cape, have been able to attain such positions.* 

In these facts are we to find the causes of the superiority of the j 
Sierra Leone missions, over those to the Natives and to the South of 
Afrira. 

Sierra Leone, however, when contrasted with Liberia, is found to 
! u-k some of (he essential elements of progress possessed by the Re- , 
public. The liberty secured to the citizens of Liberia, extends to all 

• The comparative condition of the missions in West Africa, South Africa, , 

I'nd the West Indies, according to Baird's lletrospoct for lb;')0, was as follows : ! 

W. Africa. 8. Africa. W. Indie.'*. 

M:sM..nari.-s, ^^ 214 283 

AHsi.«lant Missionaries, 1^'^ 1^^ ^ <'° 

Native Assislant.s, "5 8 .M9 

Oominunicants, ^.^^^> 12,116 T.^f.O.l 

Schools, irv-i GO 1(.0 

i'lipils 13,(331 20,102 11,0-12 



Conclitsion. 2 1 

their relations, personal, social, political. The people of Sierra Leone, ct, 
joy but two of these elements of jjioocoss. Tliey have personal frecdon 
and a fair degree of social equalily, but are deprived of the third — 
political equality — which, above all, exerts the most potent influence \- 
stimulate the intellectual faculties of men. The young convert in ll;. 
seminary at Sierra Leone, doubtless, finds great encouragement t 
mental improvement, in the prospect of becoming a teacher, or i, 
entering the ministry ; but to the unconverted youth, in the absenc 
of the prospect of political promotion, there is, absolutely, nothing l. 
stimulate to efibrts at high attainment in science and literature, 'i'lm: 
the political system of Sierra Leone, supplies but half the elements ol 
progress to its people. Had it been otherwise, had the aspirations ol 
its early emigrants been cherished, and its civil aftairs committed 
mainly to their hands, the Colony might now be in a far more advanced 
situation. This will be apparent on a fuller contrast of its condition 
with that of Liberia. 

Thirty years after the waves of the Atlantic had closed over the re- 
mains of Samuel J. Mills, it was proclaimed from the top of Montse- 
rado, that the star of African Nationality, after ages of wandering, 
had found its orbit in the galaxy of Nations. On that eventful day, a 
multitude of grateful men, with their wives and little ones, Avere lifting 
up their voices in thanksgiving and praise, to their Father in Heaven. 
Over their heads waved a banner bearing the motto, " The love of 
liberty brought us here." The barbarism that excited the pity of 
Mills and Burgess had disappeared ; the superstitions over which they 
grieved had vanished ; a Christian Nation had been born ; and thu 
vault of heaven re-echoed to their shouts of joy. 

It was thus that the Republic of Liberia was ushered into existence. 
Sixty years were gone, since the establishment of Sierra Leone. How 
wide the contrast between its history and that of Liberia ! Liberty, at 
Sierra Leone, had been rudely driven to the "bush." Its people were 
held in pupilage, bound by laws not of their own enactment, and gov- 
erned by officers of a race who had ever claimed the lordship over 
them. Taught Religion, but deprived of Liberty, the manhood of 
mind could not be fully developed. Uninstructed in human rights, 
they now yielded a slavish submission to a distant throne. Not so in 
Liberia. Here, Liberty and Religion had been rocked together in the 
same cradle. It was Religion that had given Liberty to the Liberian. 
He knew nothing of the one unconnected with the other. The Re- 
ligion that had broken his fetters, was itself free. Religious and poli- 
tical freedom, therefore, was a principle dear to his heart. He spurned 
the idea, that man must submit to dictation in religion and government ; 
and, from the first, had looked forward to the day, when his country 
should become a Christian Republic. That day has come, and gone : and 
there the Liberian stands, a citizen — a Christian ; with no law — no re- 
straint — no rule of conduct — but what emanates from himself or his God. 



244 Conclusion. 

The Republic stands, pre-eminent, as an auxiliary to missions. Its 
political system, embraces all the known elements of civil, social, and 
intellectual advancement ; while its citizens are controlled by the pre- 
servative element of Cliristian morals. Its policy makes it but one 
grand agency for overturning African barbarism. Its advantages over 
every other scheme are so obvious, that it must be regarded as the 
model system, to which all others should be conformed; and as the 
rule by which, alone, missions to Africa must hereafter be conducted. 

The conquests of Liberia, over African barbarism, have been legiti- 
mate results of the principles involved in her social and civil organiza- 
tion. She offered to the natives an asylum from the merciless slave- 
catchers : they removed within her limits to enjoy her protection. She 
employed them in household affairs, agriculture, and the mechanic 
arts : they were thus incorporated into her social system, attended the 
Church, and sent their children to school. They wore gri-gris and 
practiced polygamy : these customs debarred them from political privi- 
leges. They off"ered human sacrifices to their deities, and compelled 
those suspected of witchcraft to drink a poisonous tea : the laws pun- 
ished the taking of life, in such modes, with the penalty of death. The 
surrounding tribes, for their own safety, sought alhances with her : by 
die terms of the treaties, she has kept them at peace, and prevented 
I he trafficking in slaves. 

Thus has Liberia, by offering the natives political equality, induced 
them to abandon polygamy and superstition ; thus has the fear of pun- 
ishment deterred them from the practice of tlieir murderous cruelties ; 
;hus has war been prevented and the slave-trade suppressed within her 
bounds : and thus has American Colonization solved the great problem 
oi African Redemption. 



APPENDIX. 



The Opposition to Colonization and African ITIiakioiia. 

We quote the following remarks, on the primary sources of opposition 
to the Civilization of Africa, from the Church Missionary Intelligencer, 
December, 1853. This periodical is the organ of the English Episcopal 
Church, and the opinions expressed are entitled to the most grave con- 
siderat'on. Whatever interest the slave-trader may have in driving 
English missionaries from Africa, will apply equally to those from 
America, and to the labors of our Colonization Society. The writer, 
after noticing the efforts made to withdraw the English squadron from 
the coast of Africa, so as to leave the slave-trade once more free to the 
traffickers in human flesh, says : 

" But we have something more to say on this subject. The ^lis- 
sionary element has also been introduced into the comments which have 
been made on this affair, and has received no small amount of con- 
demnation. Our Missionaries at Lagos have thus been placed between 
two fires. The efforts of Kosoko's attacking party were evidently 
directed against their dwellings, and this we can understand, for Kosoko 
and his abettors well know that the extension of the Gospel carries 
"with it the eventual destruction of the slave-trade, and of every other 
enormity under which human nature suffers. Christianity does that 
which the squadron can not do. The latter cuts down the branches of 
the poison-bearing tree, but the former kills it in its root. If this lat- 
ter be not done, it will sprout again. The strength of the slave-trade 
lies in the latent sympathy of chiefs and people ; and Christianity, by 
indisposing them to it, and by directing their energies into other and 
wholesome channels, is drying up the secret sources from whence its 
power has been derived. The greatest benefit which the squadron has 
conferred upon Africa has been to afford opportunity for the introduc- 
tion of this beneficial influence ; and after a time, by the blessing of 
God, that influence will have so increased, and the African mind, in 
consequence, have undergone so complete a revolution, that the further 
presence of the squadron on the coast will become unnecessary. That 
time has not come yet, but it will do so, perhaps more rapidly than 
we could venture to anticipate. We can, therefore, easily understand 
Kosoko's antipathy to Missionaries, and the exultation with which he 
would have seen them compelled to quit the coast. 

"But there is an unfriendly feehng on the part of some at home, 
which is not so intelligible. It betrays itself in a readiness to entertain 
serious charges against Missionaries on ex-parte evidence * * * 

•J 4.") 



'-■^^^ Appendix. 

"We fi;ar that in many quarters there is much misapprehension as to 
lie character and tendency of Missionary operations, and that by 
-ome they are distrusted as being far otherwise than tranquilizing in 
heir influence. Has the Missionary element a tendency to complicate 
■natters, and render them more difficult of adjustment than they would 
'[herwise be ? Is it irritating and war-producing ? It has been so in- 
inuated, if not openly asserted. And we can understand from whence 
. uch insinuations originate. The Gospel, in its action, must be subver- 
ive of the plans and objects of numbers, especially in connection with 
Africa and the slave-trade. There have been many sleeping partners 
111 that traffic, men who never touched a slave, but who have often 
•lutched the gain ; men who have fed the traffic in secret, and furnished 
I he materials for its prosecution. It has been a wide-spread conspiracy 
.'or the degradation of the African family. Men in Europe, America, 
Africa, liave been bound together in this unholy compact, each having 
assigned to liim his own particular department, and each full of energy 
in the prosecution of it. Where were the printed goods fabricated that 
^vere used in barter between the foreign and native slave-dealer ? 
Where were forged the bolts, and fetters, and chains, by which the 
limbs of the captured African were constricted, and he was reduced to 
m incapability of resistance ? Perhaps nearer home than we could 
have imagined.* Where was launched the well-found bark, with such 
admirable sailing powers, the floating prison of the poor slave ? Whence 
I ho nautical skill that designed the craft, and the able workmen who 
wrought it out, until she sailed from the port which gave her birth, in 
every re.spect equipped and fitted for the slave-trade, but not to be so 
used until, on the African coast, transferred to other hands than those 
which took her there ?f How various and extensive the interests which 
were engaged in the prosecution of the slave-trade, all which have been 
interfered with by the interruption of the traffic on the coast. Many 
of these, to save themselves from stagnation, have engaged in lawful 
commerce ; but it is with regret they have done so. Of course, in the 
eyes of such parties, everything that interferes to prevent a return to 
the palmy days of slave-trading prosperity, when abundant opportunity 
was afforded for the gratification of more than one evil passion, be- 
Cf)mcs an object of antipathj-. The squadron on the coast, and the 
Missionaries on shore, are alike detestable. If both could be removed 
something might be done, and what so likely means as misrepresenta- 
tion ? The Missionaries are self-interested, and obstruct the develop- 
ment of lawful traffic. The squadron is unnecessary, and its interfer- 
ence on such occasions as that of Lagos is in the highest degree 
mischievous. Credulous ears are not wanting to become the deposi- 
tiirirs of whisperings such as these ; and soon the whole gloss finds its 
way into (he columns of the daily press, and influential journals become 
the exponents of charges which would be serious indeed if they could 
be proved. But these misstatements require to be promptly met, 

• In EntjUnd | United States. 



Appendix. 247 

otherwise their effect might soon appear in a gradual diminution of the 
repressive foi'ce on the coast, until it became materially weakened. 
Meanwhile, the devastations of the cholera in Cuba have been seriously- 
diminishing the supply of working hands, and many eager eyes are di- 
rected towards Africa to see whether the attempt could be made to re- 
open the traffic with any prospect of success. Already new vessels 
have been fitted out, and we may soon have painful evidence that the 
trade is not extinct, and that, if we remove our foot from the neck of 
our prostrate but not slain foe, he will rise up to resume the contest." 



The English Apprenticeship System. 

Preoident Roberts has written the following letter, to a gentleman 
in England, in explanation of the influence exerted on the natives, by 
the practice of purchasing apprentices, from the African chiefs, to serve 
as laborers on the plantations of the British West Indies. Is not this 
system virtually a renewal of the slave-trade, and a violation of Eng- 
land's treaty with the United States for its suppression ? 

Government House, Monrovia, September, 1853. 

I assure you, sir, the Government of Liberia has no desire to, nor 
•will it interfere improperly with the operations of Messrs. Hyde, 
Hodge & Co., nor will it place any unnecessary obstacles in the way 
of their obtaining emigrants from the Liberian coast. The only object 
the Government had in issuing the proclamation referred to, was, and 
still is, to see that emigration from within its jurisdiction shall be free 
and unconstrained. 

It is proper I should remark, that no facts have come to the 
knowledge of the Government to induce the belief that Messrs. Hyde, 
Hodge & Co., or their agents, have actually sent off persons, or that 
they would, knowingly, send off any, without the voluntary consent of 
their natural guardians. But the Government had good grounds for 
believing that attempts were about to be made to force certain unfor- 
tunate persons to emigrate without the facts of their coercion coming 
to the knowledge of the emigration agents. 

During last year, serious disturbances rose between certain Vey and 
Golah chiefs in the neighborhood of Grand Cape Mount. And, in the 
early part of the present year, Boombo and George Cane, Vey chiefs, 
residing respectively at Little and Grand Cape Mount, attacked and 
captured some three or four native towns in the Dey and Golah dis- 
trict, and carried away as captives several hundred of the inhabitants. 
Soon after these occurrences, a report was rife here that George Cane 
had contracted with the agents of Messrs. Hyde, Hodge & Co., to 
supply a number of emigrants. Complaint was also made to the Gov- 
ernment — by the chiefs who had suffered — that Cane's intentions were to 
send off to the West Indies the captives he had taken from the towns. 



248 Appendix. 

Now, that the agents of Messrs. Hyde, Hodge & Co., would coun- 
tenance constrained emigration, or that they would have received those 
persons, knowing them to be captives, we had no reason to believe. 
But it is more than likely that nine out of ten that would have been 
offered as emigrants, at that time, would be of this unfortunate class. 
And the chances were a hundred to one that the emigration agents 
would be deceived in regard to the real condition of the people. Very 
possibly, no complaint then and there would have been uttered by 
them. They were suft'ering painful captivity ; and whatever their 
feelings might be in regard to emigration, they would gladly, perhaps, 
have availed themselves of that or any other opportunity to escape the 
cruelties of their captors. And, further, sir, I am assurred these poor 
fellows were given to understand that when they should be ofiered as 
emigrants, if they disclosed their real condition, or refused to emigi-ate, 
their lives would be sacrificed. Many of these captives have since 
been released, and returned to their homes and families ; and all, I 
am told, corroborate this statement. Now, sir, under these circum- 
stances, was it unreasonable to suppose that many might be sent off 
without their volimtary consent ? And was it not the duty of the 
Government to provide as far as possible the means of checking such 
outrages ? Of course, in all this there is no blame to be attached to 
Messrs. Hyde, Hodge & Co., or their agents. 

But, my dear sir, with respect to this emigration business, the strict- 
est watchfulness must be observed ; otherwise, the enterprise may 
lead to abuses and evils of the most painful character. Not that re- 
spectable British agents would knowingly be the means of producing 
such results ; but let the chiefs along the coast find that they can send 
off captives, as emigrants, to the British West Indies, and obtain an 
advance of only ten dollars each, and the old system — war — of pro- 
curinsr slaves will again be renewed. J. J. Roberts. 



[From the Liberia Herald.] 
Trial and Sentence of Boombo. 

Monrovia, April 6th, 1853. 
"We have seldom witnessed th« trial of a case producing so much 
interest as that of Boombo's. The readers of the " Herald," need not 
be told, that Boombo is a chieftain of Little Cape Mount, that he had 
voluntarily entered into an arrangement with the Government of Li- 
beria, and subscribed to demean himself according to the laws and 
constitution ; also, that he and his people lived on lands purchased by 
the Government of Liberia from the native owners. Boombo, though 
bound by his solemn engagements to refrain from wars, and not to dis- 
turb the peace and quietness of the country, has repeatedly, since he 
placed himself under the laws of Liberia, broken his engagements by 
carrying on predatory wars, destroying towns and murdering and 



Appendix. 249 

carrying into captivity hundreds of inoflfensive men, women and chil- 
dren. To all the remonstrances of Government, Boombo gave no heed, 
and his bloody career did not end until he was brought to this city a 
prisoner. George Cain, of Grand Cape Mount, is also amenable to the 
laws of Liberia ; and it is now well ascertained that he was the prin- 
cipal actor in all the disturbances created in the Little Cape Mount 
country. Boombo, it appears, acted under his direction. 

At the last Court of " Quarter Sessions," Boombo was indicted for 
*' Biff h Misdemeanor" — the indictment set forth a general allegation and 
three special counts. The first count charged the prisoner with violat- 
ing his obligations and allegiance to the Government, and that he did 
procure and make war upon and against one Dwarloo Bey and certain 
other Goulah chiefs, occupying a portion of the territories of Grand 
and Little Cape Mount — that he murdered the inhabitants — carried 
into captivity large numbers of the defenseless ; sacked, burned and 
pillaged towns and villages, and laid waste the country. The second 
count charged, that Boombo violated, etc., as before, that he did pro- 
cure and make war upon and against one Weaver, a Dey chieftain — 
crossing the Little Cape Mount river, and entering the Dey country 
for that purpose ; that he murdered inhabitants, carried others into 
captivity, and sacked, burned, and pillaged towns and villages, and 
laid waste the country. The third count, charged that Boombo did 
violate, etc., as before, and that he committed felony, by seizing and 
carrymg off merchandise from factories belonging to citizens of Mon- 
rovia. The Attorney-General, Wm. Draper, Esq., was assisted in this 
case by David A. Madison, Esq., of Buchanan, Grand Bassa. D. T. 
Harris, and J. B. Phillips, Esquires, appeared for the prisoner, and 
we are pleased to say that these gentlemen did all that honest and 
patriotic men could do for a man under such circumstances. They 
ably and eloquently defended the prisoner upon every point that for- 
mality and technicality would admit of, but as they could not argue 
the lock off the door, and as the evidence, especially that given by 
prisoner's witnesses, was point blank against Boombo, the verdict was, 
(fuilty of each count. 

The sentence was — restitution, restoration, and reparation of goods 
stolen, people captured, and damages committed ; to pay a fine of 
$500, and be imprisoned for two years. When the sentence was pro- 
nounced the convict shed tears, regarding the ingredient of imprison- 
ment, in his sentence, to be almost intolerable. It is hoped that this 
will prove a salutary example to all other chieftains under the juris- 
diction of this Government, that they may, henceforward, be convinced 
of the determination and power of the Government to administer jus- 
tice in the premises. It is the belief of many, that Boombo's punish- 
ment, as per sentence, is too great, but we believe to the contrary. 
Until rigorous measures are used to deter chieftains from carrying on 
their predatory wars, there can not be any guarantee, but that some 
part of our coast will always be in a state of savage warfare. 



MEMORIAL OiN AFRICAN COLONIZATION. 



To the Honorable the General Assembly of the Stale of Ohio: 

Your Petitioners would beg leave respectfully to call the attention 
of your honorable body, to the wants of the Ohio State Coloniza- 
tion Society; and, in so doing, would ofler a few remarks embodying 
the reasons upon which they found their claims to assistance from 
the State. 

The conflict of Civilization and Barbarism — of power and intelli- 
gence with weakness and ignorance — has been productive of results 
as diverse as the differences in the religious systems and moral 
habits of the dominant parties. The Pagans of civilized Egypt, 
Greece, and Rome, having no knowledge of the true God, or of 
man's moral responsibility and immortality, treated their slaves, 
whether made captive in war, born in their houses, or bought with 
tlieir money, as they did the lower animals — merely as cupidity, 
fear, or pleasure dictated. The oppressions of merciless taskmasters, 
the murder of infants, the assassination of Helots, the butcheries in 
the gladiatorial arena, all bear terrible testimony to the fearful con- 
sequences of the conflict between the weak and the strong where 
Pagan principles predominated. 

Not so were the results of Hebrew civilization when brought into 
contact with the surrounding barbarism. The Law of God was tlie 
rule of action to the Hebrews. It enjoined, equally, the circum- 
cision of males, whether sons or servants, and the careful education 
of all. So urgent was this duty, that it was made imperative on 
parents, not onl}' to teach the Law of God diligently, but to write it 
upon the posts of the houses, and upon the gates, so as to be ever 
kept in remembrance. Thus the contact of the civilized and the 
barbarous, under Hebrew law, was meliorating, elevating, redeem- 
ing — the result the richest blessing that a subject of the heathen 
tribes could then attain. 

In modern times, too generally, the contact of the civilized and 

barbarous has been destructive of the latter. Take, as an example, 

tlxi Lidians of the Nortli American Continent and its adjacent 

Islands. The Pagan principle of treatment was, mostly, applied to 

(250) 



(251) 

them by the civilized intruder, and their destruction was the conse- 
quence of their refusal to minister to his cupidity. A few excep- 
tions now happily prevail. The Hebrew rule, in its more expanded 
form under Christianity, has been applied to some of the Indian 
tribes, who are rising intellectually and morally under the teachings 
of the Christian Missionary. Take another example. The Africans, 
torn from tlieir country and reduced to slavery, have but too often 
been subjected to the Pagan rule, destruction following as an inevi- 
table result. One instance of that kind, only, need be referred to. 
There were imported into the British West Indies, from Africa, 
1,700,000 slaves, of whom and their descendants only 660,000 
remained for emancipation. This result was not due to their subjec- 
tion to slavery, as was argued by Mr. Buxton. Slavery is not 
necessarily destructive of human life. Hebrew servitude was not 
so, neither has American slavery been so. This is proved by the 
fact that less than 400,000 Africans were landed in the territory 
HOW constituting the United States, from which we had, in 1850, a 
population of 3,638,808 persons of African descent. That is to 
say: "In the United States, the number of Africans and their 
descendants is nearly eight or ten to one of those that were 
imported, whilst in the British West Indies there are not two per- 
sons remaining for every five of the imported."* Thus, our colored 
population, on 400,000 imported, has increased more than three 
millions and a quarter, while that of Great Britain, on 1,700,000 
imported, has diminished a million. Surely, men who could so far 
violate the laws of humanity, as to produce such results as occurred 
in the West Indies, must have been actuated by mercenary motives 
alone, and could only have treated their slaves on the Pagan prin- 
ciple, in all its fearful disregard of human life. How far the slave- 
holders of the United States have adopted the Pagan instead of the 
Hebrew system, in the treatment of their slaves, we shall not 
attempt to determine. That much instruction, however, has been 
imparted to them, directly or indirectly, is proved by the intellectual 
progress they have made; and that their general treatment has been 
comparatively humane, is evident from the fact that their increase 
has equalled that of the best conditioned people in the world. Were 
the Hebrew rule adopted entire, in reference to our slavery, doubt- 
less all the evils complained of in the system would disappear, and, 
in time, the system itself be dissolved. 

The point to which we wish mainly to direct attention is this: 
The Hebrew rule, foimded in the Law of God, is obviously the one 
by which the people of Ohio should be governed in their treatment 
of the colored people. The provision made by the State for the 
education of this class of our population, is a close approximation to 
this rule. The school law makes as liberal a provision for the edu- 
cation of colored children, in most cases, as it does for the whites. 
The law is philanthropic and should be sustained. The common 

* Compendium of the United States Census, 1850, page 84. 



(202) 

schools, with their adjuncts, the school libraries, should be left 
inUict as the great element of intellectual and moral progress to 
both blacks and whites. Thousands will thus be made intelligent, 
wlio otherwise would be doomed to comparative ignorance. The 
cst'iblishment of District Libraries corresponds to the writing of the 
statutes and the commandments of God upon the door-posts and 
gates of the Hebrews, since it lays open the sources of knowledge 
to all. 

But here arises a practical question. The taxation for the sup- 
port of the schools falls mainly upon the whites. How far will 
they bear the extension of this charity? Would the citizens of the 
State assent to a proposition to receive and educate the great body 
of the free colored population of the other States? Could they bear 
the burden that such a measure would impose? It is believed they 
could not be persuaded to extend their charities so broadly. And, 
yet, there are causes in operation which are practically producing 
such a state of things. Look at the facts. The surrounding Suites, 
slave and free, have not only failed to make adequate provision for 
the education of their free colored people, but have adopted a course 
of legislation recently, which is adverse to allowing them to remain 
within their limits. Even before the adoption of this policy by the 
other States, the tide of immigration of the blacks flowed so rapidly 
into Ohio, that it gave her an increase of that population amounting 
to nenvly forti/-six per cent, in the ten years ending with 185U. 
The actual increase made to her population, in that ten years, 
amounted to two thousand more than the total increase of colored 
persons in all the six New England States since the year 1800.* 

The immigration of the colored people into Ohio, since 1850, 
must have increased more rapidly than at any former period. Tiiis 
belief is founded on the following facts: The legislation of Indiana, 
■Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin, forbidding citizenship to the free 
colored people in these States, has gone into efl'ect, mostly, since 
1860. The slave States, too, since that date, have been making 
their laws, relating to this class of their population, more stringent 
than formerly, expecting thereby to drive them to the free States. 
As Ohio not only opens her arms widely to receive all the colored 
people who may be banished from the other States, but makes ample 
provision for their education when they arrive, the inducements for 
them to concentrate among us are very strong. Indeed there is no 
other point where they can expect so hearty a welcome. 

Tliero is another fact to be noted. Many of the free States have 
maile appropriations of money to encourage Colonization to Liberia. 
Tiiis is understood by the colored people at large, as an expression of 
sentiment unfavorable to their ultimate admission to an equality with 
tlio whites. They have been led to believe that such an equality is 
attainable in the midst of the whites; and, hence, as Colonization 
promises them full political privileges only in Africa, the majority 

* See Compendium of U. S. Censup, 1850, 



(253) 

of the blacks have an unbounded hatred of the system, and are de- 
serting the States wliich give it their patronage. This leads them to 
prefer emigrating to States supposed to be hostile to Colonization, 
and pledged to promote what ihey are led to regard as the colored 
man's best interests. The Ohio Legislature passed a bill through its 
lower House, a few years since, to aid African Colonization; but it 
was defeated in the Senate, by being laid over among the uniinlshed 
business of the session. All subsequent attempts to pass the bill 
having failed, the colored people consider the policy of the State as 
settled adversely to Colonization, and that Ohio has become their 
"Land of Promise." 

All these stimulants to the immigration of colored men into the 
State are now in active operation, and the demands upon our educa- 
tional funds will be increased in a corresponding degree, so as to 
require an increased taxation for the support of this charity. Atten- 
tion is called to this point, because the main argument employed to 
defeat the Colonization Bill, was an alleged want of power in the 
Legislature to tax one class of the population for the benefit of an- 
other. The passage of the present school law settled this principle, 
as it taxes the whites, largely, for the benefit of the colored people. 
We would, then, respectfully inquire, if it be constitutional so to 
legislate as to attract additional colored immigrants to the State, to 
receive its charities, why it should not be equally so to aid those 
born in the State to emigrate to Liberia, where they can educate their 
own children and no longer be a burden here ? 

Your honorable body will readily understand the importance of 
taking action on this subject. We have a constantly increasing black 
population drifting in upon us from the slave States. We can not, 
if we would, roll it back whence it comes, or turn its tide to the 
right or to the left of our borders. Impassable barriers are every- 
where erected to prevent its flow into other States. Ohio is the 
interior sea into which its waves must continue to rush, until a 
broader and deeper outlet is created for its escape to some wider 
ocean. We plead not for any relaxation of the eftbrts making for 
the intellectual and moral culture of the colored people of the State. 
We would urtje the aucjmentation rather than the diminution of the 
educational facilities now afforded them, since an increase of intel- 
ligence will but prepare them for engaging in Avider fields of enter- 
prise, and tend more rapidly to develope the capacities of the race. 
This is the more essential, as their capacity for elevated mental and 
moral culture is called in question. Colonizationists have based all 
their action on the belief in the unity of the human race, and the 
natural equality of the whites and blacks. But the doctrine of the 
inferiority of the African to the Caucassian is becoming popular, 
and is urged as an objection to emancipation. Whether true or false, 
this doctrine is gaining ground, and its advocates insist that it re- 
ceives confirmation from the results of emancipation itself. The 
free blacks, residing among the whites, give themselves up to 
pleasure and to servile employments, rather than to the practice of 



(254) 

the self-denying endurance of the toil necessary to success in me- 
chanics and agriculture. This state of things is everywhere observ- 
able. With some honorable exceptions, they rarely attempt to com- 
pete with the white man in productive industry. This is true of 
those in the enjoyment of political equality, as well as of those where 
tliis boon is withheld. Frederick Douglass, Gkrritt Smith, and 
abolitionists generally, lament this state of things. The failure of the 
free colored people of the North, in this respect, after seventy years 
of freedom * enables the South to point to the result as affording an 
argument against emancipation. Their argument is strengthened, 
they conceive, by the results in the West Indies. The Colon iza- 
tionist dissents from this judgment, and claims that the colored man 
must have a fair field for the trial of his capacities. He insists that 
the blacks are not to be judged by any thing that has occurred under 
the circumstances mentioned, as they are overshadowed by the white 
man in the United States, controlled by foreign lawgivers in the 
French and English West Indies, and oppressed by an ignorant semi- 
barbarian in Hayti. Give the colored man a nationality, continues 
tlio Colonizationist, before you judge of bis capacity for compe- 
ting with the more highly cultivated races. Select your field, then, 
says the opposer of the Unity doctrine, I am willing to test tlie ques- 
tion, and if the negro fails again, talk no more to us forever about 
his equality with the white man. Thus has Liberia become the 
colored man's state of probation, in which he is to fix his destiny as 
it regards an equality with the Caucassian. If he fails there, if the 
little beacon light kindled by that republic should be extinguished, 
and darkness again cover the African continent, alas! for the hopes 
of the Negro race! 

Your memoralists, in view of all these considerations, would 
respectfully ask your honorable body to pass a law appropriating 
means sufficient to enable the Ohio State Colonization Society to send 
its emigrants from the State to Liberia. We found our claims to 
assistance from the State on such grounds as these: that it is not tho 
purpose of the people of Ohio to tax themselves for the education 
of the free colored people of the surrounding States: that so long as 
Ohio stands pledged against Colonization, so long will the colored 
people continue to emigrate into her bounds, as to their " land of 
Canaan:" that an appropriation in aid of Colonization, by your 
liOnorable body, would discourage immigration, as it would bo 
received by the colored people as an indication that civil and social 
(■([uality was not to be expected here, but tliat the people of Ohio 
])referred to promote the establishment of a nationality for them in 
Africa: that on the passage of such a law, the neighboring States, 
instead of contenting themselves with legislating for the expulsion 
of their colored population, Avould be forced to make provision for 
their colonization in Liberia: that an extensive emigration of tho 



•It is BcvcDty-six years sjdco Massachusctta orajuicipated her slaves uncon- 
dilionally. 



(255) 

more enlightened free colored people to Liberia, by adding to her 
industrial population, would aid, proportionally, in developing the 
resources of that country, extending the area of civilization and 
Christianity, and elevating the colored race: that as two races dif- 
fering so widely as to prevent their amalgamation by marriage, can 
never live together but as superiors and inferiors, the removal of 
our colored people to Liberia will afford them incentives to virtuous 
action they never felt before: and that the contact of Civilization 
and Barbarism in Africa, will not be destructive of the native inhab- 
itants, but tend to their redemption, because the government of Li- 
beria discards the Pagan principle of action, and adopts the Hebrew 
rule, in the expanded form it has assumed under Christianity. 

In conclusion, your memorialists would submit to the judgment 
of your honorable body, whether justice to all concerned does noL 
demand that the policy of the State, in reference to Colonization, 
should now be definitely settled. Other States are contributing 
from $2,000 to $10,000 a year in aid of emigration to Africa. For 
the present your memorialists do not need a large amount, but if 
the State decides on Colonization as its settled policy, an increased 
liberality will be needed. 

SAMUEL W. FISHER, Chairman, 
DAVID CHRISTY, Cor. Secretary, 
of Board of Directors of 0. S. Col. Society. 
Cincinnati, March 1, 1856. 



311-77 -1 



